Allyson Felix has eleven Olympic medals, and the line she keeps coming back to about women’s sports is that nobody is doing anyone a favor.
“There’s just so much happening right now in women’s sports,” she said. “There’s so much potential and upside. It’s not charity. It’s very clear that there is a return on investment here.”
Felix is a co-founder of Always Alpha, a management firm built only for women’s sports, and of Saysh, a footwear brand made around what women athletes actually need. She gives the same reason for both. “I think it’s really been about solving problems,” she said. “If I don’t see something in the world that I believe should exist, it’s really taking that step to create it.”
Always Alpha was founded with her brother and longtime business partner Wes Felix and the sports executive Cosette Chaput, and it described itself at launch as the first management firm dedicated exclusively to women’s sports. Felix has said she and her brother built their own business piece by piece out of necessity, because there was no other option for turning what they wanted into something real, and that Always Alpha is the modern management firm she used to wish existed.
She is specific about who should be inside it. She said she is trying to make sure doors get broken down and opportunity gets created, and she named Black women in track and field when she said it. “We have no shortage of just incredible athletes,” she said. “There’s such a rich heritage and these athletes right now are just so exciting.”
The way she grades her own work changed when she stopped racing. “It used to be so clear-cut: you win the race, or you don’t,” she said. “But now I think it’s really been about impact.” She put the test as two questions. “Am I having impact? Am I doing work that is meaningful and purposeful?” she said.
She says it took her a while to say any of it out loud. “It took me a long time to find my voice,” she said. “But once I did, it was important to really step out there.” She added that it was important to be proud of the work you are doing, to stand behind it and to do something meaningful.
She is looking at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics as the place a lot of this gets tested, and she wants children in the stands for it. “There’s nothing like seeing the Olympic Games firsthand,” she said. “I’m excited for a lot of our kids to be able to go to events and witness that.”
“I’m definitely moving with intention,” she said.
