“A lot of elements translate from the sport when you have a child, the focus to nurture and be there for him when needed, the drive to balance everything.” This was Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce about what it is like to be a mother. But for many athletes, becoming a parent isn’t just a personal milestone; it brings career challenges too. Just ask Allyson Felix. The decorated Olympian once said, “Getting pregnant in track and field has been called the kiss of death.” Her journey highlighted how the system wasn’t always built to support athlete moms. So, what exactly happened to her?

Allyson Felix is married to former American sprinter and hurdler Kenneth Ferguson. The couple, who first met as teenagers at a track meet in 2002, tied the knot in 2018 and renewed their vows in 2021. Together, they had two children: Daughter, Camryn Grace Ferguson, born November 28, 2018, and Son, Kenneth Maurice “Trey” Ferguson III, born on April 10, 2024. Now, when she was pregnant with her son, she was already retired, so it was not a problem. But back in 2018, she was the real deal on the track, and being pregnant made her afraid. Listen to her confession:

The American track and field athlete made a post on July 1, 2025, that talked of her first pregnancy and the struggles behind the scenes. In one of the photos in the post, she posed on a lonely road and wrote, “I hid my pregnancy, because I was afraid I wouldn’t be supported.” She first revealed her pregnancy publicly in an ESPNW article published on December 20, 2018, after giving birth on November 28th. Until then, selective in the photos she shared of herself on social media, uploading only old photos from before she was showing, or ones in which she posed strategically in a sweatshirt or bump-covering overalls.

She was so scared that we would go to training at 4:00 am so that nobody would see her and discover she was pregnant. Even the birth of her daughter was complicated. At a routine check‑up at 32 weeks, doctors discovered Allyson Felix had high blood pressure and protein in her urine—classic signs of severe pre‑eclampsia. She was immediately hospitalized, and the medical team opted for an emergency C‑section within 48 hours.

Her daughter, Camryn, was born extremely preterm, weighing around 3 lb 7 oz (≈1.55 kg), and spent approximately one month in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). But after her birth, nothing stopped the legendary American as she went on to create history in track.

Allyson Felix created history in track post pregnancy

Less than six weeks after postpartum, Felix returned to training despite recovering from a C-section and late-stage pre-eclampsia. Just 10 months after her emergency C-section, Felix shattered the record for World Championship gold medals. At the 2019 Doha World Championships, she ran a leg in the inaugural mixed 4×400 m relay, winning gold and setting a championship record—her 12th World title, surpassing Usain Bolt’s previous record of 11.

Building on that momentum, Felix went on to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics (held in 2021) as a proud mother. She earned bronze in the individual 400 m, becoming the most decorated female track-and-field Olympian with her 10th medal, and then anchored the U.S. women’s 4×400 m relay to gold—her 11th Olympic medal, breaking Carl Lewis’s record as the most decorated U.S. track athlete. At age 35, she became the oldest U.S. woman to win Olympic gold in track and field.

In 2022, at the World Championships in Eugene, she ran her final professional race, earning bronze in the mixed relay. She had solidified her legacy: 20 World Championship medals, 11 Olympic medals, and unprecedented achievements as both a mother and an elite athlete. She also became an advocate for mothers in track and field, which was embraced by the community. What are your thoughts about Allyson Felix, the mother and track and field athlete?