WEBVTT - Allyson Felix: Revolutionizing the Running World 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:02.760 So I had just come off of a world championship 0:00:02.759 --> 0:00:06.400 that made me the most decorated athlete male or female 0:00:06.480 --> 0:00:08.560 in history. So I thought I was in a really 0:00:08.640 --> 0:00:13.320 great place. But the conversations, even before I was pregnant 0:00:13.440 --> 0:00:16.480 or disclosed my pregnancy, they started off at seventy percent 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:18.640 less than what I had been making. 0:00:25.560 --> 0:00:29.200 Welcome to She Pivots, the podcast where we talk with 0:00:29.280 --> 0:00:32.519 women who dared to pivot out of one career and 0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:36.920 into something new and explore how their personal lives impacted 0:00:36.960 --> 0:00:46.639 these decisions. I'm your host, Emily Tish Sussman. If you're 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:50.080 a runner, there's no doubt you'll know this next guest today, 0:00:50.120 --> 0:00:53.680 I'm so excited to share my conversation with Alison Felix, 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:58.080 the world's most decorated track and field athlete male or female. 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:01.000 Over the course of her running career, she's competed in 0:01:01.080 --> 0:01:05.080 five Olympics and nine World Championships, winning a total of 0:01:05.280 --> 0:01:10.040 thirty medals between the two. But despite her record breaking success, 0:01:10.360 --> 0:01:14.480 she still experienced inequality in her career. When deciding to 0:01:14.520 --> 0:01:18.959 pursue motherhood, Alison soon realized that maternal protections were not 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:21.920 going to be an option for her. After attempting to 0:01:21.959 --> 0:01:26.000 renegotiate her contract, her sponsored offered her a seventy percent 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:29.280 pay cut, something that would never happen to a male athlete. 0:01:29.319 --> 0:01:34.040 Contemplating parenthood after all the medals, after all the records, 0:01:34.520 --> 0:01:38.320 after a decade of partnership, but inspired by the women 0:01:38.360 --> 0:01:42.360 around her, her teammates, her fellow cohorts, and other sports 0:01:42.720 --> 0:01:46.240 and of course, her daughter, Alison, decided to fight back. 0:01:47.160 --> 0:01:49.600 In her own words, she has said that advocacy has 0:01:49.720 --> 0:01:52.880 changed the game. After she called out the hypocrisy of 0:01:52.920 --> 0:01:56.560 many athletic companies who claimed to quote support women but 0:01:56.720 --> 0:02:01.800 never offered maternity protections, many major sponsors announced maternity protections 0:02:02.120 --> 0:02:06.360 and change their corporate policies, guaranteeing athletes pay and bonuses 0:02:06.400 --> 0:02:11.440 through and after pregnancy. After changing an entire industry for 0:02:11.480 --> 0:02:15.840 the better and making history, she left her sponsor and pivoted. 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:19.920 Since then, she has launched her footwear brand Sache, with 0:02:20.040 --> 0:02:22.640 the goal of being designed for and built for women 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:27.320 whose bodies change. Although Allison is an Olympian, her story 0:02:27.400 --> 0:02:31.440 is all too common for women across many industries. Beyond 0:02:31.480 --> 0:02:34.240 going head to head with her sponsor and winning, Alison's 0:02:34.280 --> 0:02:37.600 story delves into learning how to cope with disappointment and loss, 0:02:37.960 --> 0:02:49.040 how she advocates for others, and confronting the realities of motherhood. Enjoy. 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:53.680 I am Alison Felix. I am an olympian and an entrepreneur. 0:02:54.320 --> 0:02:56.240 So I want to talk about the start of your 0:02:56.320 --> 0:02:59.799 running career. So your older brother, Wes was a successful 0:03:00.800 --> 0:03:02.919 So did that encourage you to get into it or 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:05.120 you just separately felt it in you. 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:08.840 And the typical little sister, Like I've ran after my 0:03:08.919 --> 0:03:12.160 brother all of my life, and so he was running 0:03:12.160 --> 0:03:13.880 and he was doing really well. But I was at 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:17.360 a new school and I just didn't really have like 0:03:17.440 --> 0:03:20.400 my friend group yet. And so it was him and 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:22.000 like my dad who were like, you should go out 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:24.200 for the track team, like you'll meet people. And so 0:03:24.320 --> 0:03:27.200 I had no like ambition to like be an athlete. 0:03:27.400 --> 0:03:29.520 That was not a part of why I started running 0:03:29.520 --> 0:03:31.120 at all. It was just like, Okay, this will be 0:03:31.120 --> 0:03:33.480 a great way to like find friends. So I was 0:03:33.639 --> 0:03:35.920 encouraged by the fact that he was an athlete and 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:38.800 he was doing well, so I thought maybe, but yeah, 0:03:38.840 --> 0:03:41.840 it was really just like I need friends, and it worked. 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:45.520 I found my best friends, my best girlfriends. They were 0:03:45.560 --> 0:03:47.800 actually like all in my wedding, like where it's so 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:50.480 close to this day. So it did. And then I 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:53.440 also absolutely fell in love with the sport and found 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:55.400 the thing that made me feel alive. 0:03:55.720 --> 0:03:58.600 It felt right, and so that was like the birth 0:03:58.640 --> 0:04:00.680 of all of that. Did you think that you were 0:04:00.720 --> 0:04:02.000 going to be the best runner in the world. 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:04.880 I did not, So that was not my plan. And 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:08.240 I didn't know anything. Like myself and my family, like 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:11.840 we didn't have that background, so we didn't really know. 0:04:12.040 --> 0:04:14.400 It was just kind of, you know, I was doing well. 0:04:14.520 --> 0:04:16.760 I went to the state meet, and then as I 0:04:16.800 --> 0:04:19.359 got faster than people started to tell us. And the 0:04:19.360 --> 0:04:22.520 way that the Olympic Trials and everything worked is basically, 0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:25.359 if you run a qualifying time, then you know you 0:04:25.440 --> 0:04:27.960 can go. And so I started to run those times 0:04:28.000 --> 0:04:29.560 and then I was like, oh wow, I can I 0:04:29.600 --> 0:04:32.159 can go, and then it just kept going from there. 0:04:33.000 --> 0:04:35.640 So at what point did the running start to become 0:04:36.279 --> 0:04:39.240 serious for you? Like your career outpaced your brothers. 0:04:40.200 --> 0:04:42.279 So I went pro from high school and so I 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:45.240 had a professional coach. I was a freshman at USC 0:04:45.680 --> 0:04:48.920 That was the biggest competition I had ever performed in, 0:04:49.040 --> 0:04:50.279 and it was it was all new. 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:54.920 Going pro straight out of high school was nearly unheard of. 0:04:55.760 --> 0:04:58.359 Most athletes don't even make it to the collegiate level, 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:01.279 and even fewer, less than two percent go pro. 0:05:02.600 --> 0:05:06.080 It all happened very quickly. I initially started as a 0:05:06.080 --> 0:05:08.400 freshman in high school and so that was my introduction. 0:05:08.560 --> 0:05:11.400 And by the end of my time in high school, 0:05:11.440 --> 0:05:14.080 it was very clear that this was a path that 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:16.839 I could take. And early on I was like, oh, maybe, 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:19.039 you know, I can go to college and you know, 0:05:19.200 --> 0:05:21.359 I'll get a scholarship. And then it was like, oh, no, 0:05:21.440 --> 0:05:24.159 you can be a professional athlete. And I wasn't. I 0:05:24.160 --> 0:05:26.159 didn't grow up in the sport. I didn't know any 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:28.479 of that. And then it all became very real. You know, 0:05:28.520 --> 0:05:30.240 I could go to the Olympics and all of that. 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:33.240 So started my freshman year and then my first year 0:05:33.880 --> 0:05:36.760 in college that's when I went to the Olympics. So 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:39.760 it was a very fast process. 0:05:40.120 --> 0:05:44.440 The Olympic Trials and that is the women's two hundred meters. 0:05:44.440 --> 0:05:46.080 It will be the final event on the track. A 0:05:46.160 --> 0:05:49.280 sprite star for the United States Allison Felix. She's only 0:05:49.320 --> 0:05:51.719 eighteen years old. She already has been on the cover 0:05:51.839 --> 0:05:54.760 Sports Illustrated. How about that at eighteen years. 0:05:54.600 --> 0:05:57.960 Old and Allison Feelix, it's been running with more confidence 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:01.320 each round. Here, she is really rounding in the shape, 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:04.280 one of the first female or male athlete to go 0:06:04.400 --> 0:06:08.320 straight from high school right into the pros. 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:11.320 Howson Felix turns up the challenge and on the inside 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:16.599 muna lead Felix wrings it Feelix with the whimfre You were. 0:06:16.440 --> 0:06:19.400 Saying, despite her success at such a young age, her 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:22.400 parents still expected her to complete her college education. 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:26.240 I come from a family of educators, so there was 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:29.280 no chance that I was not going to school. Thankfully, 0:06:29.320 --> 0:06:31.240 you know, they worked out into the contract that you know, 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:33.240 my schooling would be paid for and all of that. 0:06:33.480 --> 0:06:35.919 So that was a regular student. You know, I didn't 0:06:35.920 --> 0:06:38.799 compete collegiately, but I was trying to do both. 0:06:39.680 --> 0:06:42.159 Yeah, So how did you navigate that decision if you 0:06:42.160 --> 0:06:46.680 were the first US athlete to sign a professional contract 0:06:46.800 --> 0:06:50.400 instead of competing for the school. What was that decision like? 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:53.240 What was that process like in making the decision? I mean, 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:55.719 it was a really hard decision to make. 0:06:55.800 --> 0:06:57.480 It was one that I really like sat down with 0:06:57.480 --> 0:06:59.800 my family and we went back and forth, you know, 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:02.480 the pros and the cons and it ultimately really came 0:07:02.560 --> 0:07:04.479 to the fact that I wanted to make the Olympic team. 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:05.280 And it was that year. 0:07:06.120 --> 0:07:08.760 If you're wondering why she couldn't compete at both the 0:07:08.800 --> 0:07:12.480 collegiate level and as a pro well, until a recent 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:16.400 Supreme Court ruling, college athletes were banned from earning any 0:07:16.440 --> 0:07:19.920 money from their sport, whether it be from sponsorship, races 0:07:20.000 --> 0:07:20.600 or otherwise. 0:07:21.400 --> 0:07:23.760 I basically made the decision that I think my best 0:07:23.760 --> 0:07:25.720 shot would be to go pro and be able to 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:28.960 focus on the Olympic trials and making the team that way. 0:07:29.040 --> 0:07:32.080 So that's really what the decision came down to. But 0:07:32.160 --> 0:07:34.880 it was hard, especially that first year. I had a 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:38.560 really challenging time competing. I was competing against women who 0:07:38.600 --> 0:07:40.920 were grown and this is what they had been doing, 0:07:41.000 --> 0:07:44.480 and so that was hard. It was hard just navigating 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:48.040 being a professional athlete, being still a young woman and 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:50.040 figuring out that whole world. And so it was a 0:07:50.040 --> 0:07:52.560 lot of trial and error in figuring out what worked. 0:07:52.600 --> 0:07:55.400 But the first year, the first couple of years, they 0:07:55.400 --> 0:07:58.600 were pretty rocky. It was also a little bit strange 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:00.720 because all of my friends they were on the team 0:08:00.840 --> 0:08:02.240 and I thought I was going to be on the 0:08:02.240 --> 0:08:04.600 team until like I made this decision to go pro, 0:08:04.720 --> 0:08:07.320 So it was kind of navigating this new world. I 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:09.800 was the first US athlete who had done this, so 0:08:09.880 --> 0:08:12.840 there wasn't like a path charted before me. So I 0:08:12.920 --> 0:08:14.920 was a lot of like just figuring it out and 0:08:15.320 --> 0:08:17.480 trying to be focused because my goal was to make 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:21.200 that Olympic team, but also school was absolutely important to 0:08:21.240 --> 0:08:24.200 me as well. So I got some things wrong and 0:08:24.600 --> 0:08:27.120 found my way. You know, eventually, what. 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:30.000 Do you feel like you got wrong? I think I thought. 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:31.840 It was going to be almost like high school. You know, 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:33.960 you go to class and then you go to practice 0:08:34.000 --> 0:08:37.640 and like everything's good. But it was like, school's really hard. 0:08:37.800 --> 0:08:41.600 I'm adjusting to being at college, and then all of 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:46.640 my competitions are overseas, so I'm traveling. I'm letting professors know, 0:08:46.760 --> 0:08:48.480 like I have this and this, and they're like, what 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:51.640 is that. That's not not the school team, so we 0:08:51.720 --> 0:08:54.000 can't really help you there. So it was like navigating 0:08:54.080 --> 0:08:56.960 how do I keep up with all of my classes, 0:08:57.000 --> 0:08:59.719 all of my exams and everything while still being on 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:03.120 the st and traveling overseas and going to all these competitions. 0:09:03.440 --> 0:09:06.240 I think at the beginning, I attempted to, like, you know, 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:09.040 be doing all the things, and it just it wasn't possible. 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:11.880 I was training with my professional coach and I was 0:09:11.920 --> 0:09:14.200 the only athlete, so it was kind of an isolating 0:09:14.240 --> 0:09:17.520 experience because it was just so busy, so intense. It 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:21.480 was near impossible to be living the traditional college experience. 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:24.720 Do you remember there being a moment when you thought 0:09:25.040 --> 0:09:26.680 I can do this, I can be the. 0:09:26.559 --> 0:09:30.480 Best after the Olympics. So I went to the Olympics. 0:09:30.480 --> 0:09:33.080 They were in Athens, and I got a silver medal. 0:09:33.440 --> 0:09:35.240 That was the kind of the moment where I was like, oh, 0:09:35.240 --> 0:09:39.000 the fire is lit. I was really disappointed. Initially, I 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:41.679 was like I felt so close to gold. And then 0:09:41.720 --> 0:09:44.559 my family like very quickly put everything in perspective to me, 0:09:44.640 --> 0:09:48.080 it's like you're eighteen years old, and they helped me realize. 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:51.120 But I definitely would say that was the moment where 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:55.400 I saw the greater potential and I also saw it 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:57.520 was going to take a lot more work to get there. 0:09:57.640 --> 0:09:59.400 But that was the moment where I was like, this 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:02.400 is I want to do and I got to keep 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:02.959 going with this. 0:10:03.760 --> 0:10:07.239 So you've described having a really not just a professional 0:10:07.240 --> 0:10:10.040 mindset around it, but a pretty intense mindset around it, 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:13.920 where you didn't really celebrate the winds, but the loss 0:10:14.000 --> 0:10:16.840 is really really stuck with you. I mean that sounds 0:10:16.880 --> 0:10:21.200 like a very serious competitive mindset. When did that switch? 0:10:22.360 --> 0:10:25.360 I feel like I experience that for the majority of 0:10:25.679 --> 0:10:29.680 the beginning of my career, probably until my third Olympics. 0:10:29.679 --> 0:10:32.920 I would say, I mean, I think that's naturally just 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:37.920 who I am, where I'm super competitive, I'm super critical 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:40.600 of myself and just really hard on myself, and I 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:43.200 think it started to kind of shift after being in 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:46.000 pursuit of a gold medal for a very long time. 0:10:46.080 --> 0:10:50.080 I think I started to just learn the process more 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:53.160 and learn what was more important to me. I guess. 0:10:53.920 --> 0:10:56.640 So the first two Olympics I got silver medals, and 0:10:56.679 --> 0:10:59.560 then it was the third Olympics where things really came 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:02.560 together for me and I finally got ultimately my individual 0:11:02.600 --> 0:11:03.160 gold medal. 0:11:03.800 --> 0:11:05.880 She now goes after history trying to be only the 0:11:05.920 --> 0:11:07.360 third woman to pull off the. 0:11:07.360 --> 0:11:08.880 Four hundred and two hundred doubles. 0:11:09.000 --> 0:11:11.160 Phoenix and Lambs line and Adamson. 0:11:11.240 --> 0:11:12.520 Phoenix gets her. 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:15.480 Gold pray for Christ a second, it looked. 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:18.680 Like ten Or was third success was like gold. That's 0:11:18.760 --> 0:11:21.560 the only way to like determine it. That's the only 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:25.480 way that it measured up. And I just I went 0:11:25.520 --> 0:11:28.439 there a really difficult time after getting the second silver medal, 0:11:28.440 --> 0:11:29.960 and I was just like this, I don't know if 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:33.120 this is ever gonna happen for me. And then after 0:11:33.240 --> 0:11:36.000 you know, going back the next four years and dedicating 0:11:36.040 --> 0:11:39.760 myself and giving everything I had, when it finally did 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:43.400 come together, it didn't exactly feel like what I thought 0:11:43.440 --> 0:11:45.800 it would. I think I had like built it up 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:49.520 to be this incredible thing. Like I thought everything was 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:51.040 going to change. I thought my life was going to 0:11:51.080 --> 0:11:53.880 be different, and then it happened and kind of like 0:11:54.080 --> 0:11:56.640 nothing changed, and I went back to life and everything 0:11:56.720 --> 0:11:59.320 was the same, and it took me time to unpack it. 0:11:59.360 --> 0:12:01.680 But I think it was just the magic was along 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:04.199 the way. It was the process. It was the growing, 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:08.400 the stretching, becoming, all of that, and so it was 0:12:08.480 --> 0:12:11.680 less about the actual accomplishment but more about. 0:12:11.559 --> 0:12:15.120 The journey to get there. I really identify with that. 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:17.800 I feel like I go at things so intensely that 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:20.079 when I do something like I don't know how to 0:12:20.120 --> 0:12:22.160 describe it anyway other than I like ram my head 0:12:22.240 --> 0:12:27.240 into it. Yeah, And I feel like sometimes if I 0:12:27.280 --> 0:12:30.240 get to that thing that I immediately moved the goal post. Yeah, 0:12:30.280 --> 0:12:34.480 so that I'm always pushing myself. Maybe it's not very healthy, actually, 0:12:34.800 --> 0:12:36.560 but do you feel like as soon as you got 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:38.559 that one goal, like you just moved the gold post 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:39.160 to the next? 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:39.719 Oh? 0:12:39.760 --> 0:12:43.160 Absolutely, yeah, And I agree with you. I don't think 0:12:43.160 --> 0:12:46.280 it's the healthiest thing. But I think when you're so 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:49.679 focused on something, and I think that was also one 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:51.760 of the things I learned, is like instead of being 0:12:51.840 --> 0:12:56.920 so focused on one specific goal, that I could measure 0:12:57.040 --> 0:12:59.800 success in different ways, and like there were successful things, 0:12:59.840 --> 0:13:01.839 and I think it is important to celebrate the winds 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:04.320 along the way. But it was like I was stuck 0:13:04.320 --> 0:13:07.000 and I wouldn't allow myself to go there. And then 0:13:07.160 --> 0:13:09.320 finally I was like, there has to be a different way, 0:13:09.360 --> 0:13:11.480 And I think that's when I start to understand there's 0:13:11.559 --> 0:13:13.000 other measures of success. 0:13:13.480 --> 0:13:15.400 Okay, we have to go deeper in here, because I 0:13:15.440 --> 0:13:17.560 feel like this is the entire thesis of the show 0:13:17.559 --> 0:13:20.200 that I am in fact still personally struggling with. How 0:13:20.200 --> 0:13:23.760 does one find multiple ways to find success for themselves? 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:27.160 But how did you find different ways to measure success. 0:13:28.160 --> 0:13:30.880 Yeah, I mean it came later in life, but I 0:13:31.640 --> 0:13:34.640 started to realize that it was never about the metals. 0:13:34.920 --> 0:13:36.960 I thought that it was. I thought I put so 0:13:37.080 --> 0:13:41.319 much focus and so much intensity on that, But it 0:13:41.440 --> 0:13:45.520 was on like having impact, understanding that my purpose in 0:13:45.559 --> 0:13:48.040 life is not just to like run fast. I have 0:13:48.080 --> 0:13:50.160 the ability to do so much more than that. And 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:53.480 I think it was really uncovering that it was about impact. 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:56.480 It was about creating some sense of change and doing 0:13:56.559 --> 0:14:00.240 something with a platform instead of just saying that I 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:02.800 can get medals. And it was so much deeper than that. 0:14:03.720 --> 0:14:07.000 I think once I started to go through real life experiences, 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:09.960 that's when it started to uncover. So it was definitely 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:14.959 the decision to start a family and move into things 0:14:14.960 --> 0:14:16.840 that actually matter to me, because I got to a 0:14:16.880 --> 0:14:18.840 point in my career where it was like, Okay, I 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:23.240 have the medals, like I have the accolades and the accomplishments, 0:14:23.600 --> 0:14:26.680 but I don't actually have what I've always wanted, and 0:14:26.680 --> 0:14:30.120 that was to become a mother and to have a family. 0:14:30.200 --> 0:14:33.440 So that was the moment where things really started to 0:14:33.480 --> 0:14:34.000 shift for me. 0:14:35.440 --> 0:14:38.440 After running professionally for so many years, She saw the 0:14:38.480 --> 0:14:42.600 struggle other female athletes faced preparing for and experiencing motherhood 0:14:43.400 --> 0:14:46.840 to starting a family was not a decision she made lightly. 0:14:48.080 --> 0:14:52.080 I love kids. I studied elementary education and college. My 0:14:52.120 --> 0:14:55.040 mom is an elementary school teacher, and so I grew 0:14:55.120 --> 0:14:58.640 up around kids, and that's something I always wanted. Since 0:14:58.880 --> 0:15:01.560 this sporting career was unexpected for me. It wasn't what 0:15:01.600 --> 0:15:04.280 I set out to do. I always felt like I 0:15:04.320 --> 0:15:07.640 had to wait. It wasn't really like somebody told me that. 0:15:07.920 --> 0:15:09.840 I don't think anybody ever, did you know, No one 0:15:09.920 --> 0:15:12.880 told me that. But it's what I saw, and I 0:15:12.920 --> 0:15:16.320 saw in my sport. I saw that women waited. I 0:15:16.400 --> 0:15:20.680 saw that the women who did have children, they really struggled. 0:15:21.680 --> 0:15:24.200 Some of our most famous female athletes have been vocal 0:15:24.240 --> 0:15:28.440 about their experience with motherhood. From Serena Williams. 0:15:28.440 --> 0:15:32.680 I somehow managed to win, but I was so emotionally 0:15:32.720 --> 0:15:35.880 spent and just like so emotionally drained that it was 0:15:36.680 --> 0:15:38.040 it was crazy, and. 0:15:38.600 --> 0:15:41.000 You know, and then like every night after that, I 0:15:41.080 --> 0:15:42.600 just was with her the whole time and was like, 0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:44.280 you're gonna be with me, and I just took a 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:44.840 lot on. 0:15:44.880 --> 0:15:48.240 To Kim Kleister's also a tennis player and first mother 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:49.760 to be number one in the world. 0:15:51.120 --> 0:15:53.160 Was it hard being a mom and a pro at 0:15:53.160 --> 0:15:53.960 the same time. 0:15:54.520 --> 0:15:57.680 I would write a story about my two thousand and 0:15:57.840 --> 0:16:01.920 nine US Open victory. The story would be emotional. 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:04.360 It was a very emotional two weeks to. 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:08.720 Beach Volleyball three time Olympic gold medalist Carrie Walsh. 0:16:08.640 --> 0:16:11.720 Great question. Actually, you know, before we had our first child, 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:15.320 I was told not to do it because they're like, 0:16:15.400 --> 0:16:15.640 you know. 0:16:15.600 --> 0:16:18.040 You just want the Olympics. You're going to lose all 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:20.560 these endorsements. People are going to forget about you. When 0:16:20.560 --> 0:16:21.360 you hold your baby. 0:16:21.360 --> 0:16:23.160 It's going to hurt your shoulder. Your hipster are going 0:16:23.200 --> 0:16:26.400 to be the same. Like people told me the craziest things, 0:16:26.520 --> 0:16:28.640 and it kind of like you're like, whoa, you know, 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:30.680 I've never done this before, is that true? You know, 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:34.120 usually sponsorship deals are two to four years and so, 0:16:34.160 --> 0:16:36.400 and I'm an Olympic athlete, so usually every four years 0:16:36.520 --> 0:16:39.560 my deals go away or you know, renew them. So 0:16:39.600 --> 0:16:42.640 I think I probably wasn't resigned after a couple of pregnancies, 0:16:42.960 --> 0:16:45.240 but new ones came in. You know, certain brands step 0:16:45.320 --> 0:16:47.520 up when the others leave, So that's just the psycho 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:47.840 of life. 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:52.800 I know, they struggled to reach their potential. They struggled 0:16:52.840 --> 0:16:55.720 to stay in the sport. And it wasn't because they 0:16:55.720 --> 0:16:58.800 weren't capable. You know, they absolutely were and they were 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:02.160 doing it, but those weren't the stories that were being told. 0:17:02.280 --> 0:17:04.680 And so since those weren't the stories that were being 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:07.280 told and I never saw it being celebrated, I just 0:17:07.320 --> 0:17:09.760 figured that, Okay, well I'm going to have to do 0:17:09.880 --> 0:17:11.199 I'm going to have to get all the metals, do 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:13.600 all the things. Before I could even think of having 0:17:13.600 --> 0:17:16.560 a family. I also saw them struggle with their sponsorship, 0:17:16.600 --> 0:17:21.440 you know, I saw sponsorship being paused or women hiding pregnancy. 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:24.159 So there was this whole other aspect where I was 0:17:24.160 --> 0:17:27.679 actually scared to start a family, and I thought that 0:17:27.840 --> 0:17:29.960 I wasn't sure if I would be able to continue 0:17:29.960 --> 0:17:31.880 on with my career, and so I felt like that's 0:17:31.880 --> 0:17:34.800 why I put it off so long, because I felt like, 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:38.000 I love my career and I want to have both, 0:17:38.040 --> 0:17:39.360 but I don't know if that's possible. 0:17:40.000 --> 0:17:41.879 The myth of being able to do it all is 0:17:41.920 --> 0:17:45.480 so pervasive. As Alison talked about in her TED talk. 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:48.800 Sports companies love to tell women that they can have 0:17:48.960 --> 0:17:51.280 it all, they can do it all, they can be 0:17:51.359 --> 0:17:55.840 it all. We've all seen those inspirational ads. I had teammates, 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:58.560 I had friends. This is something that I had seen 0:17:58.640 --> 0:18:00.760 since I was like seventeen years old when I became 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:03.560 a professional, and so yeah, I saw the struggle all 0:18:03.560 --> 0:18:05.959 over the place, and so it was, yeah, that was 0:18:06.119 --> 0:18:09.800 where the fear came from. One of my best friends 0:18:09.880 --> 0:18:13.520 that was a training partner of mine. She's about ten 0:18:13.600 --> 0:18:16.720 years older than me, and so I saw her complete process, 0:18:16.800 --> 0:18:20.200 and I saw her go through all of the things. 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:23.000 I saw her come back from pregnancies, and I just 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:25.760 saw how difficult it was. And so I think it 0:18:25.840 --> 0:18:29.440 was just those real experiences in my life that really 0:18:29.760 --> 0:18:32.679 scared me that I possibly may not be able to 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:33.119 do both. 0:18:34.359 --> 0:18:37.639 Watching those around her struggle was just part of the problem. 0:18:38.040 --> 0:18:40.679 The athletes are paid and supported by their athletic or 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:44.960 corporate sponsors think Nike, Adidas, Puma, and in order to 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:47.680 get those top sponsors, you have to be a top 0:18:47.720 --> 0:18:51.520 performing athlete, something that might be a problem if you 0:18:51.800 --> 0:18:52.600 just had a baby. 0:18:53.800 --> 0:18:56.399 So the way that contracts work in track and field 0:18:56.480 --> 0:18:59.600 is their performance based, and so you have a contract 0:18:59.720 --> 0:19:02.600 in you go to like an Olympics or a World 0:19:02.680 --> 0:19:05.720 Championship and you get a medal, we have a world ranking, 0:19:05.920 --> 0:19:08.119 you get a bonus. And so if you go and 0:19:08.400 --> 0:19:10.760 you don't get a medal and you're not ranked, then 0:19:10.800 --> 0:19:13.439 you get a reduction. And so what was happening for 0:19:13.560 --> 0:19:16.879 women who became pregnant is that they were not able 0:19:16.960 --> 0:19:19.879 to keep their salaries because they would be reduced. They 0:19:19.920 --> 0:19:22.800 would have a baby and say the Olympics or World 0:19:22.880 --> 0:19:25.879 Championships was the next month or two three months later, 0:19:26.200 --> 0:19:28.920 they weren't able to compete, so they would be reduced 0:19:28.960 --> 0:19:31.800 and reduced many times, all the way to nothing. So 0:19:31.880 --> 0:19:34.399 it was this very real thing where women were just 0:19:34.440 --> 0:19:37.719 being pushed out of the sport because financially they couldn't 0:19:37.720 --> 0:19:44.080 continue on. Everything is pretty much performance based. There's not 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:45.200 much security in it. 0:19:46.000 --> 0:19:49.280 So is that why you went to have a conversation 0:19:49.359 --> 0:19:52.479 with your sponsor as you were thinking about having a family, 0:19:52.560 --> 0:19:54.439 even before it was even a reality for you. 0:19:55.440 --> 0:19:57.680 So I had came off of a really, really great 0:19:57.720 --> 0:20:00.480 performance at this time, I had been to four Olympics, 0:20:00.520 --> 0:20:03.119 I had just come off of a World Championship that 0:20:03.200 --> 0:20:06.840 made me the most decorated athlete male or female in history. 0:20:06.840 --> 0:20:09.000 So I thought I was in a really great place. 0:20:09.160 --> 0:20:13.960 But the conversations, even before I was pregnant or disclosed 0:20:14.000 --> 0:20:17.120 my pregnancy, they started off at seventy percent less than 0:20:17.320 --> 0:20:20.359 what I had been making. So that just elevated my 0:20:20.440 --> 0:20:22.800