Allyson Felix - How to Handle Pressure, Failure, and Reinvent Yourself as an Olympian
Post Run High
iHeartPodcasts
1.1 • 4.5K Ratings
🗓️ 16 March 2026
⏱️ 74 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What do you do when you achieve everything you set out to accomplish — and it still doesn’t feel like enough?
Allyson Felix is the most decorated track and field athlete of all time: 11 Olympic medals. 5 Olympic Games. But the most important lesson of her career had nothing to do with winning.
In this episode, Allyson opens up about:
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the grief of losing the identity you’ve built your life around
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what it really felt like to win silver when the world expected gold
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training at 4am in the dark while pregnant to hide it from sponsors
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the New York Times op-ed that forced Nike to change maternity policy
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and the moment she stopped tying her worth to her results
Whether you're chasing a goal right now — or wondering what comes after you reach it — this conversation will change how you think about success, identity, and what you're really running toward.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | My first silver medal, I was 18. |
| 0:02.0 | But the second one, four years later, the weight of it felt different. |
| 0:06.0 | Two silver medals back to back. |
| 0:08.0 | The biggest doubt was like, can I ever do this? |
| 0:10.0 | Alison Felix is the most decorated, track and filled athlete of all time. |
| 0:14.0 | 11 Olympic medals. |
| 0:15.0 | A torn ligament before the Olympic trials. |
| 0:17.0 | A Nike policy she forced to change. |
| 0:19.0 | This episode is your blueprint for resilience, |
| 0:21.7 | identity, and fighting for what's right. While you were going through this pregnancy and deciding |
| 0:25.8 | to talk about maternity publicly, was that when you found your voice? I didn't find my voice |
| 0:31.0 | until I became a mother. Once you have the success and you have this bull's eye on your back |
| 0:36.3 | and everybody comes for you. |
| 0:38.3 | It is hard to stay at that level. |
| 0:40.3 | You wrote an op-ed for the New York Times calling out Nike's maternity policy. |
| 0:43.3 | I was terrified because I knew Nike controlled... |
| 0:46.3 | I was blowing that up. |
| 0:48.3 | Women would become pregnant, start families, and they would be pushed out of the sport. |
| 0:53.3 | How did you hide the fact that you're pregnant? |
| 0:55.0 | I literally would go out to the track when it was still dark. |
| 0:57.7 | I know at some points I thought it was about medals and then it's been about impact. |
| 1:01.0 | Be disappointed. Be angry. That is what makes you great. |
... |
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