Olympian Allyson Felix was scared to reveal her pregnancy while professionally chasing gold.
“I always knew I wanted to become a mother at some point, and I also had this career I loved,” Felix, 40, said on the Wednesday, February 25, episode of Woman’s World’s “What Matters With Liz” series. “It was a physical career, and I wasn’t sure when that would happen. I also saw a lot of friends, colleagues and teammates struggle through motherhood as athletes. I thought if I accomplished enough, maybe, I wouldn’t face those same challenges.”
She continued, “I waited until I had accomplished a lot. I was a six-time gold medalist. I felt like I was in a really good place to take this on. … I felt like, ‘OK, this is a good time.’ But as I was thinking about pursuing that, I was also renegotiating my contract with Nike, who I’d been with for almost a decade. It started off very rocky. The original offer they gave me was 70% less than what I was previously making.”
Felix and her husband, Kenneth Ferguson, welcomed daughter Camryn in 2018 and son Kenneth Maurice Ferguson III in 2024.
Felix never informed Nike that she was pregnant while at the negotiation table.
“I think they felt I was older,” Felix speculated of the reason for the low sponsorship offer. “There was a new crop of younger athletes coming up. That’s where it began. I already had this fear of what could happen, and then I got that offer. So, I did what a lot of my friends had done before me: Once I became pregnant, while still going through this really difficult renegotiation, I hid my pregnancy.”
She continued, “I started training in the dark. I wanted all the normal pregnancy experiences — the bump photos, the showers, all of it — and I didn’t get any of it. I stayed isolated in my house. When I did have to go out, I wore baggy clothes. And I was doing this because I didn’t have anything on paper. I knew that if I disclosed my pregnancy, even that 70% offer would most likely disappear — for no reason.”
Without disclosing her pregnancy, Felix began asking for more “maternal protections” in her contract instead of a higher salary.
“In track and field, our contracts are performance-based,” she explained. “You go to the Olympics, you go to Worlds, you get a bonus, but if you don’t, you face reductions. If you’re not performing, you face really aggressive reductions. If you’re pregnant or have just had a baby, there’s nothing in place to protect you.”
In addition to seeking a change in her own deal, Felix also wanted to make a bigger change across the track industry.
“I was asking for time to recover. Initially I was told I could have the time, and I thought,
‘OK, at least this could change things,’” she said. “But when I received the contract back, there was no mention of maternity — no legal wording that would set the precedent for female athletes. I realized they were not willing to do that, and that was the turning point. I had to decide, ‘Was I going to take the deal just for me?’ or ‘Do something more?’”
She continued, “It was really scary, and I think also because I’m an introvert by nature [and] a people pleaser. I hate to rock the boat. This was going against everything I’d ever known, so far outside of my comfort zone. I really went back and forth, ‘Is this right? What are the consequences?’”
Felix expressed her position in a 2019 op-ed for The New York Times, which led Nike to revamp their maternity policies for athletes.
“The sense that I couldn’t let my daughter and her generation face this … was a stronger pull [than staying quiet],” she recalled to the outlet on Wednesday. “And we should say, because of what you did, Nike changed their policies. There are now maternal protections for athletes. To see the culture shift [and] to see female athletes understand that it’s their choice now, that they can have children and still be at the peak of their careers, that’s what it’s about. Not feeling forced to choose.”
Felix, who is the most-decorated track and field medalist at the Olympics, retired in 2022.
