35-year-old sprinter says that while she could continue racing after Tokyo but plans for this Olympics to be her last
\nNews Agency
\nCANBERRA
\nUS track and field star Allyson Felix said Wednesday this summer\u2019s Tokyo Games will be her final Olympics but she has not set a definite date for her retirement.
\nThe 35-year-old sprinter — the only female track and field athlete to win six Olympic gold medals — said that while she could continue racing after Tokyo, she will not be around for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
\n\u201cI do plan for this to be my final Olympics,\u201d Felix told reporters at the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee\u2019s virtual media summit.
\n\u201cI don\u2019t know for how much longer than this year I will run. I\u2019m just going to take it as it comes as far as that goes. I don\u2019t see myself doing another Olympics, but I haven\u2019t laid out an end date.\u201d
\nFelix will be competing in her fifth Olympics in Tokyo, having first raced at the 2004 Athens Games, where she won a silver medal in the 200 meters.
\nAt the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics, Felix won a silver medal in the 400m and golds in the 4x100m and 4x400m relays.
\nWhile she has focused on the 400m in the latter part of her career, Felix said Wednesday she plans to enter both the 200m and 400m at the US Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon in June.
\n\u201cI\u2019m just going to see how training unfolds. I would like to participate in both at trials and see the outcome of that,\u201d Felix said. \u201cIf I need to focus on one or the other we will make that decision.\u201d
\nFelix said she had initially struggled to process her disappointment last year when the Olympics were postponed.
\n\u201cObviously it was something that had to happen – there was such a loss of life, loss of jobs and loss of normalcy all around and we were really going through it with everyone,\u201d Felix said.
\n\u201cI had to pivot about thinking how to have that same energy for a whole another year. It was really challenging. But I tried to do my best to use that time to my advantage and just get stronger and better to continue forward.\u201d Lockdown restrictions in Felix\u2019s hometown of Los Angeles made training during the pandemic challenging.
\nThe 13-time World Championship gold medallist said she and coach Bobby Kersee had been forced to improvise after being denied access to a running track.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s been a constant challenge throughout — we\u2019ve trained on the street, we\u2019ve trained on the beach, we\u2019ve been all over the place,\u201d she said.
\n\u201cThe craziest experience was training in my neighborhood. I\u2019ve gone running in my neighborhood before but never sprinting through the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
35-year-old sprinter says that while she could continue racing after Tokyo but plans for this Olympics to be her last News Agency CANBERRA US track and field star Allyson Felix said Wednesday this summer\u2019s Tokyo Games will be her final Olympics but she has not set a definite date for her retirement. The 35-year-old sprinter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184964,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-184954","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n