Allyson Felix

And let me tell you this, this is not anything new.

Michael Phelps, Alison Felix, Lindsey Vonn do this on a daily basis.

In fact, 70 to 90% of all Olympians now regularly practice visualization techniques.

Olympic athletes use visualization or mental imagery to enhance performance by creating vivid, multisensory mental movies of successful outcomes.

I cruise the airwaves like Rodney on the rock, old school, cool like the Rat Pack and Musso and Frank.

I'm Alison Felix, back on track, ice baths and espresso, bookstores and power yoga, rising rents and unaffordable housing, striking actors, writers, musicians.

I'm Fernando Mania and Dodgers southpaw Clayton Kershaw, striking out batters, panting pitbulls, police reports, archive, deep cuts, knife cuts, and all kinds of cults.

I am promising as an Echo Park Lake sunrise, durable as Buster Keaton's star on the boulevard, lasting as the psychic wounds reverberating from Japanese internment camps.

... interview.

[laughs] Do you know how many times I have tried to interview Allyson Felix?

Really?

[laughs] This is like the...

Same in the women's 200 meters.

Allyson Felix wouldn't.

[laughs] I watched the semifinals, I thought, "Oh, she doesn't look as good."

No.

Yeah.

Look at Allyson Felix, she took like four years off and is coming back.

Yeah.

[laughs] More than that.

Love it.

Everyone, Allyson Felix and Wes Felix are joining me up here today.

[audience cheering] So speaking of comebacks, let's just cut to the chase.

Olympic comeback, mom, entrepreneur, business owner, all of the things.

It can inspire you, sometimes inspire you to do it, sometimes to be like, "No, actually I don't wanna do that.

Maybe I'll try something [laughs] else."

So we had Allyson Felix here.

Serena Williams just announced.

So that's going to include things like travel arrangements, training camps, uh, competition, contracts, selection, sponsorship, and of course, the enormous psychological pressure of wondering, "Am I still the same athlete? Can I still perform?" Which brings us to an uncomfortable part of the conversation, because women have historically faced a motherhood penalty in sport.

Allyson Felix, um, you know, after she had her baby, was famously dropped by one of her major sponsors.

Um, and she came back, and she showed them and developed her own brand of footwear, and she's just ... she's an absolute legend.

She's, she's such an icon, I think, in, in the rise of the mother athlete.

But so few of them that I spoke to in the years leading up to launching the show were like, I have a place to go and talk about who I am just as a person.

I'm more than this incredible Olympian.

And that's wild to say, more than an Olympian.

That's so impressive, right? Yeah.

But then, you know, I have Allison Felix, who is world class Olympian, just came out of retirement on the road to L.A. 2028, track and field star.

And she's a mother.

She almost died fighting for her life and advocating now for black maternal health because of her own pregnancy scare.

Alyssa Naeher, Jen Beaty, Sarah Gordon, Meg Lanahan, Maria Sanchez, Casey Stoney, Leslie Osborne, Katie Zelem, Jenny Nguyen, Olivia Moultrie, Cindy Parlow Cone, Briana Scurry, Alana Kennedy, Macy Hodge, Lily Nobitt, Parvati Shalloe.

Julie Uhrman, Meg Kleberg, Carli Bindon, Savi King, ER Fightmaster, Kenza Dali, Delphine Cascarino, Riley Tiernan, Willow Bay, Megan Rapinoe, Sue Bird, Yasmin Ryan, Maddie Mastro, Blake Morgan, Caroline Hendershot, Cami Levin Ashton, Doma Wells, Allyson Felix.

Themba Chawinga, Ali Setnor, Kimia Escancio, Priska Chilufya, Dr. Robyn Sholfield, Jimmyse Joseph, Crystal Dunn, Coach Jackie, Kennedy Fuller, Melanie Bocenras, Carolien, Sydney Bortanaro, Amber Glenn, Lily Johannes.

Mary Earps, Yaneli Farias, Alessia Russo, Sam Coffey, Tierna Davidson, Ari Borges, Dana Castellanos, and Sophia Smith.