At 40, Allyson Felix is trying to do what most retired sprinters would not even consider: come back for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics six years after walking away from the sport. But while Felix is chasing a sixth Olympic appearance, 30-year-old Dina Asher-Smith is already looking at the same Games as a possible goodbye. One veteran is refusing to let age close the door, while another is preparing for the end.

On August 31, Asher-Smith appeared on Jake Humphrey’s The High Performance Podcast, where she opened up about her future while discussing the changing face of women’s sprinting and the growing number of veteran athletes who appear to be reconsidering retirement. When Humphrey asked whether Los Angeles would be her last Olympics, Asher-Smith gave a candid response.

“Yeah, mate. Melbourne’s far, like, both geographically and time.” The 2032 Olympics will be held in Brisbane, Australia.

She went on to make it clear that she expects LA to be her final Olympic appearance, although she stopped short of calling it certain. “Like, I’m almost positive it will be,” Asher-Smith said.

Her answer then shifted to other veteran athletes reconsidering retirement. “All my mates that are slightly older than me, they seem to be coming out of retirement,” Asher-Smith said, adding that some have privately told her they have started training again despite not announcing a comeback publicly.

She said, “I’m getting little messages of them stretching, like, ‘Yeah, I just went for a knee surgery, just trying to figure out all of it, and then we’re just going to see if I can get back on track.’” Asher-Smith, however, refused to reveal who those athletes are. “Not exposing names,” she said.

While Asher-Smith kept those names private, Felix is one veteran whose comeback plans are already public.

Ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympics, Felix tore ligaments in her right ankle after landing awkwardly on a medicine ball while coming down from a pull-up bar. She still made it to the U.S. Olympic Trials, but the injury affected her start and turn in the 200m, where she finished fourth by just 0.01 seconds and missed the chance to defend her Olympic title.

Felix continued rehabbing the ankle into the Games before competing in the 400m, 4x100m and 4x400m relay.

Humphrey later returned to the possibility of LA being Asher-Smith’s final Olympics, but she was not interested in getting sentimental before the race.

“Sometimes you’ve just got to get it done,” she said. For Asher-Smith, the emotions can wait until after the performance.

She made her Olympic debut at Rio 2016, reaching the 200m final and finishing fifth before helping Great Britain win bronze in the 4x100m relay.

At Tokyo 2020, a hamstring injury derailed her individual campaign. She missed the 100m final and withdrew from the 200m, but still helped Britain win bronze in the 4x100m relay. At Paris 2024, she competed in the 100m, finished fourth in the 200m and helped Great Britain win silver in the 4x100m relay.

Despite that Olympic experience and relay success, Asher-Smith has still never won an individual Olympic medal.

If she qualifies for Los Angeles in 2028, it would be her fourth Games and potentially her final chance to change that.

Her comments also come as veteran athletes such as Felix are challenging the usual retirement timeline in women’s sprinting.

Allyson Felix launches ‘Project Six’ for a home Olympic comeback

Felix, now 40, retired after the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Oregon. Four years later, she is back in training with her sights set on the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics. If she qualifies, Felix would be 42 and would make her sixth Olympic appearance.

Her last Olympic appearance came at the Tokyo 2020 Games, where she won gold in the 4x400m relay and bronze in the individual 400m. Those medals took her Olympic total to 11, including seven golds, making her the most decorated female track and field athlete in Olympic history. However, the idea of returning did not suddenly arise in 2026.

Felix first seriously considered a comeback in 2025 while training with her husband, Kenny Ferguson. She later took the idea to her brother and business partner, Wes Felix, and named the plan “Project Six” after her goal of reaching a sixth Olympics.

The biggest pull is the chance to compete at home. Los Angeles is Felix’s hometown, but she has never competed in the Olympics on home soil. That made the opportunity difficult to ignore. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime homecoming,” Felix said.

Her decision is also about challenging expectations surrounding women and age. Felix, now a mother of two, knows there are assumptions about what women should be doing at this stage of their lives, but she has chosen to question those expectations rather than follow them. “So many of us have been told not to do the big, bold thing,” she said. “At this age, I should probably be staying home and taking care of my kids, doing all that. And just, why not?”

That mindset eventually convinced Felix to take the chance rather than wonder what might have happened if she had tried.