The Olympic collector

Text by Yavuz YAVUZ

Allyson Felix, the legendary US sprinter, added two more medals in Tokyo to her Olympic collection, bringing the overall tally up to eleven (seven golds, three silvers and a bronze), which marks several important milestones in the general Olympic medal table in athletics. Firstly, with the bronze medal at the women’s 400m race Felix won the tenth Olympic medal of her career, which made her the most decorated female athlete competing in track and field, surpassing Merlene Ottey’s nine medals. Moreover, with a total of eleven medals, Allyson Felix is now the most decorated US track and field athlete, taking over the top spot from Carl Lewis who has won a total of ten Olympic medals in his career. Felix, who was already the most decorated athlete in terms of the times she stepped on the World Athletics Championships podium, is now one medal shy from equalling the tally with the Finnish athlete Paavo Nurmi who dominated the distance races in the 1920s and won twelve Olympic medals throughout the decade. Felix, although having asserted that Tokyo 2020 would be her final Olympics, left an unerasable mark both on and off the track throughout her career as an Olympian. This is the story of each of the eleven medals won by Allyson Felix at the Olympic Games from Athens 2004 to Tokyo 2020, spreading to a 17-year span.

Athens 2004 – Women’s 200m, SILVER

The then 18-year-old Felix qualified for the final of the 200m by topping the heats at two qualifying rounds and the semi-final. She outran prominent athletes such as the European champion Frenchwoman Muriel Hurtis and the European Junior champion Ivet Lalova of Bulgaria along the way. Coming to the final Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell was the favourite, having improved her world-leading time of the season by clocking 22.13 at the semi-final. In the final, Felix came second right after Veronica Campbell, breaking the world junior record with a time of 22.18. With this silver medal, Allyson Felix inaugurated her medal collection. 

Beijing 2008 – Women’s 200m, SILVER

Having won two world championships in the inter-Olympic period, Allyson Felix was the favourite to win the gold at the women’s 200m race at the 2008 Summer Olympic in Beijing. On the other hand, Veronica Campbell-Brown, the defending champion, was also in shape in the run up to the Olympics with clocking her personal best time of 21.94 at the trials. In the semi-finals, both athletes topped their heats setting a final clash for the gold medal. In the final, with the help of a quicker reaction at the start, Campbell-Brown won her second consecutive gold medal whereas Felix was left in the second place for the second Olympics in a row. Despite clocking 21.93, her season best and the second-fastest time of her career, Allyson Felix’s second overall Olympic medal was yet again a silver. 

Beijing 2008 – Women’s 4x400 relay, GOLD

The first Olympic gold medal in the collection of Allyson Felix came at the 4x400 relay race in 2008. While the US relay team comfortably finished the final with 3:18.54 on top and won the gold medal, Allyson Felix replaced Natasha Hastings from the qualification heat and ran in the second place. With her 48.6 split, she was the fastest runner on the team. This was the first Olympic gold in the medals’ cupboard of Felix.

London 2012 – Women’s 200m, GOLD

When Felix took to the track of the Olympic stadium in London, she was seeking her first individual gold medal at the race that she came in second at the two previous Olympics in a row. A year earlier, Felix was outrun by Veronica Campbell one more time at the World Championships and was left in the third place. In the Olympic trials, Felix qualified with 21.69, fourth fastest time ever. At the Olympics in London, after qualifying for the final with minimum effort, Felix finally beat Veronica Cambell -who came in fourth- by clocking 21.88. Allyson Felix, while winning her first Olympic gold in an individual race, kicked off what would be a golden-treble at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

 London 2012 – Women’s 4x100 relay, GOLD

Allyson Felix was part of the US women’s 4x100 relay team that broke the 27-year-old world record of 41.37, set by East Germany in the Aussie capital of Canberra. Extra careful against the baton-dropping curse haunting the US relay teams, the team kicked off the race with Tianna Madison. Allyson Felix, who ran the second 100 metres, put the US team in the lead. When the race was over, the clock read 40.82, marking a new world record. This victory brought Felix her second gold medal at London 2012.

London 2012 – Women’s 4x400 relay, GOLD

Allyson Felix completed the golden treble at the 4x400 relay race where the US team retained their crown. Felix did not run in the qualifying heat and was handed the baton in the second place at the final. After DeeDee Trotter made the US the first team to relay the baton, Felix had no trouble extending the lead by clocking 48.2, once again running the fastest split in the team. Overall, the US team ran a staggering 3:16.87, the world leading time of the year as well as the fifth fastest time ever. With this gold medal, Allyson Felix became the first woman to win three golds in track and field at a single Olympic Games since Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988 Seul.

Rio 2016 – Women’s 400m, SILVER

In the run up to the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, Allyson Felix began to lean more towards the 400m races and the training paid off with the World Championships gold in 2015. Under the shadow of an ankle injury she sustained earlier in the year, Felix failed to make it to the US team to race in 200m and directed her focus to the 400m race. Women’s 400m final in Rio was marked by Shaunae Miller’s dive for gold in the last metres of the race, pushing Felix to the second place of the podium. By only a margin of 0.07, Felix won the silver medal by clocking 49.51, her seventh Olympic medal overall.

Rio 2016 – Women’s 4x100 relay, GOLD

At the women’s 4x100 relay race in Rio, the main rivalry was between the USA, the defending champions, and Jamaica, who outran them to become the world champions in 2015. However, the qualifying run of the USA was marred with drama when the baton was knocked off at the second changeover from Allyson Felix’s hand by Brazil’s Kauiza Venancio, who was beginning her split. Upon appeal, team USA was given a solo run where they clocked 41.77, the fastest time compared to both heats combined. In the final, the USA clocked 41.01, their season best, and clinched the gold medal for the second consecutive Olympics. Medal count of Allyson Felix hit eight with this gold medal.

Rio 2016 – Women’s 4x400 relay, GOLD

A rivalry similar to the one at the 4x100 final was also present at the women’s 4x400 final as the US team were seeking to defend their Olympic title whereas Jamaica had defeated them in the World Championships in Beijing despite a spectacular 47.7 run by Allyson Felix, second fastest leg in history. In the final, Felix ran the anchor leg shaking off Novlene Williams-Mills with a 49.66 split. This way, the USA successfully defended their Olympic gold medal. Allyson Felix won her ninth Olympic medal overall, tying with Merlene Ottey as the most decorated female Olympian in athletics. 

Tokyo 2020 – Women’s 400m, BRONZE

Women’s 400m race at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic postponement, gave Allyson Felix her solitary Olympic bronze medal. In the time between Rio 2016 and Tokyo, Felix became a mother and turned into a vocal activist of women’s rights in sports, forcing changes in the sponsorship deals and ensuring that they are not placed on hold during maternity leaves. In the semi-final Felix ran 49.89 clocking sub-50 for the first time since 2017. In the final, while Shanuae Miller-Uibo picked up yet another gold by breaking the area record with 48.36 and Marileidy Paulino came in second by breaking the Dominican Republic’s national record with 49.20, Felix ran a staggering 49.46 extending the Masters World Record she broke in the semi-final. Having won her tenth Olympic medal, Felix took over the top spot from Merlene Ottey at the medal table, as the most decorated female track and field Olympian. 

Tokyo 2020 – Women’s 4x400 relay, GOLD

Team US put out a star-studded relay team for the women’s 4x400 final in Tokyo, with the aim of breaking the 33-year-old world record of 3:15.17 by the Soviets, which they set in Seul 1988. Felix ran the second leg in the final, taking the baton from the newly crowned 400m hurdles gold medallist and world record holder Sydney McLaughlin and passing it over to Dalilah Muhammad. Felix raised the USA to the first place in the race with a 49.38 run after which they only extended their lead. With the amazing anchor leg run of Athing Mu, the young prodigy of the US, they won the gold medal comfortably ahead of Poland and Jamaica by clocking 3:16.85, however they fell short of breaking the world record. This was the eleventh Olympic medal of Allyson Felix, which made her the most decorated American Olympian in track and field events and put her to the second place at the all-time Olympic medal table in athletics right after Paavo Nurmi who has twelve Olympic medals in total. Allyson Felix called it curtains at a spectacular career at the Olympics with this gold medal in Tokyo.