The greatest champion of all time, American sprinter Allyson Felix, the most successful female athlete in history, including the Olympic Games and World Championships, announced on Wednesday 13 April that she will compete in her last season before hanging up her spikes for good at 36 years old.

When I was little, I was nicknamed “chicken legs”. In my wildest dreams, I never imagined that I would have such a career. I have so much gratitude for this sport that has changed my life. I gave everything I had to racing and for the first time I’m not sure I have anything left to give,” the 200 and 400m specialist and seven-time Olympic champion said on Instagram.

“I want to say goodbye and thank you to this sport and to the people who have helped shape me, in the only way I know how: with one last lap,” continued the 13-time world champion.

The super champion, Felix, who won her 10th and 11th Olympic medals at the Tokyo Games last year (gold in the 4x400m and bronze in the 400m), became the female athlete with the most podium finishes (only the Finn Paavo Nurmi did better in the men’s race), is due to take part in the Penn Relays on 30 April, to run a 300m race.

“I will run for the women”

Despite everything, she keeps a final goal that seems to focus on the World Athletics Championships to be held in July in Eugene, Oregon, with as an imposed stage the U.S. selections to be held in late June in the same place.

The star Allyson Felix is the most decorated female athlete in Olympic history, with eleven medals in all metals, the first one won at the Athens Games in 2004. She is also the athlete who has won the most medals at the World Championships, 18 in total, including seven in individual events and 11 in relays.

She will compete in the 2021 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, which was to be her last major competition, three years after giving birth to her daughter Camryn in 2018, which required an emergency C-section after only 32 weeks of pregnancy.

Her situation has since prompted her to become a strong advocate for working mothers’ rights, after she broke her contract with her equipment manufacturer Nike in 2019, which had cut her emoluments during her pregnancy.

“This season, I will run for women. I will run for a better future for my daughter. I will run for you,” Felix assured.

“This season will not be about the time, it will be about the joy. If you see me on the track this year, I hope to share a moment, a memory and my gratitude with you,” she concluded.