Olympic track star Allyson Felix is headed to Paris this week—but not to compete on the track as she did for the last two decades. Felix, the most decorated Olympian in track and field with 11 medals, will instead be traveling with her family of four to launch the Olympic Village’s inaugural nursery to support parent athletes in partnership with Pampers. “The systems aren’t in place for mothers whatsoever,” Felix, who retired from competing professionally in 2022, tells Fortune .
“I’m just trying to use my voice and speak up for some of these pretty basic things and try to see what we can implement.” The space at the village will give caregivers a private area away from the chaos of the day’s events to breastfeed or engage with their child in a quieter location. “I don’t know why it has taken so long,” Felix tells Fortune , who sits on the International Olympic Committee’s Athletes Commission.
“I would imagine it has something to do with not many women at the table and in positions of power sharing their experience.” At a talk on behalf of The Lactation Network at Peoplehood Tuesday, Felix shared that while the nursery is in its beginning stages, she envisions an evolving space so athletes and their families don’t have to care for kids in isolation or silence and where the athletic community can “normalize childcare at sporting events.” “I don’t want any other woman to feel like she has to choose between her profession and motherhood, a.