Allyson Felix is the most decorated female track and field star. She stopped by Business Insider to talk about what it means to be black at the Olympics.
Allyson Felix is the most decorated female track and field star. She stopped by Business Insider to talk about the rise of #BlackGirlMagic, and being an inspiration for aspiring athletes.
Felix is working together with the YMCA on a campaign to bring awareness to students about STEM opportunities. Following is a transcript of the video.
Allyson Felix: Well I love hearing about #BlackGirlMagic, I think it's amazing. I love that it really soared after the Olympics, because it's true about representation and really inspiring others to — whether it's athletics or whatever it is, just knowing that they can go after their dreams and it doesn't matter where you come from, how you're brought up, that you can really reach your goals.
I definitely had no idea that at the World Championships that our opening pose would blow up the way that it did. My teammates wanted to get creative with it, and so came up with that. It was just something different, it was the first year that they were having like an entrance, with music and stuff like that, and so it was just something cool, but we had no idea where it would go.
The 4×100 in Brazil was a really crazy race, because we had had an incident earlier where when I was running the baton in, there was a collision with an outgoing runner, and so we actually dropped the baton, got disqualified, got put back in the race, had to run all by ourselves, alone on the track, which was the strangest thing, and so I think by going through all that adversity, and coming back together, it really just made us stronger, and so when we got on the track and had the chance to compete for gold, we just went after it and thankfully were able to run a really fast time and win a gold medal.
I think it's really important to be an African American woman at the Olympics. I think representation is extremely important. For me it's a privilege and an honor to be there representing and knowing that little girls and boys are back home and hopefully they find inspiration from this. I know for myself that was true, I watched Dominique Dawes and I was fascinated by her and her performance in the Olympics, and I really want to do the same.
The Olympics is always gonna be your biggest stage, and it's always where you wanna perform the most, but you'll definitely have races that are just as competitive, some that are more competitive, and you're constantly seeing this high level of competition. But the Olympics always raises the stakes because not only do you have to face this competition, but you also have to perform on the world's biggest stage.
Yeah, so right now I am getting ready for this season, but beyond that, I'm excited for World Championships in 2019, and then I would love to end my career by making a fifth Olympic team, so that's my big goal, working hard to be able to make a fifth and final team.
Sports: Decorated Olympian Allyson Felix breaks down the importance of #BlackGirlMagic
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