National Athlete of the Month | Allyson Felix | May 2012

Event: 100m, 200m, 400mBorn: 11/18/1985
College: USC
 
Career Highlights: 2008 Olympic 4x400m gold medalist; Two-time Olympic 200m silver medalist ('04,'08)
 
A past 100m, 200m and 400m champion, in 2012 Allyson Felix must decide which races to focus on for London. She made history at the 2009 IAAF World Outdoor Championships by becoming the first woman ever to win three world 200-meter titles. In 2007 Felix became the second woman in history to win three gold medals at one World Championships (200m, 4x100m and 4x400m). In 2005, she went undefeated in the 200m, winning the world title and recorded the three fastest times in the world. As an 18-year-old, she won her first Olympic medal in the women’s 200m at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens and secured the world junior record at 22.18. Felix actually ran faster at a meet in Mexico City in 2003 (22.11), but meet organizers had not arranged for drug testing at the meet and the time wasn't ratified by the IAAF. Her winning time at the 2004 Olympic Trials 200m (22.28) was faster than every winning time at the Olympic Games through 1976. Her father, Paul, is an ordained minister who teaches New Testament Greek at the Master’s Seminary in Sun Valley, Calif. Her mother, Marlean, is an elementary school teacher. High school teammates called her “chicken legs” due to her long, spindly legs. She didn’t start running track until her freshman year of high school. USA Today reported that she had leg-pressed 700 pounds on a machine and dead-lifted 245 pounds. Felix was a prep media sensation, having had front-page articles in Sports Illustrated and USA Today, among other publications.
 
USA Championships
2011 USA Outdoor 400m champion (50.40)
2010 USA Outdoor 100m champion (11.27)
Five-time USA Outdoor 200m champion - 2004 (22.28); 2005 (22.13); 2007 (22.34); 2008 (21.82); 2009 (22.02)
2004 USA Junior 200m champion (22.28)
2003 USA Indoor 200m champion (23.14) - National High School record
 
International Championships
2011 World Outdoor 400m silver medalist (49.59) and 200m bronze medalist (22.42)
2008 Olympic 4X400m gold medalist (3:18.54)
Two-time Olympic 200m silver medalist - 2004 (22.18); 2008 (21.93)
Three-time World Outdoor 200m gold medalist - 2005 (22.16); 2007 (21.81); 2009 (22.02)
Two-time World Outdoor 4x100m gold medalist - 2007 (41.98); 2011 (41.56)
Three-time World Outdoor 4x400m gold medalist - 2007 (3:18.55); 2009 (3:17.83); 2011 (3:18.09)
2003 Pan American Games bronze medalist (22.93)
 
Awards and Honors
Three-time Jesse Owens award winner (2005, 2007, 2010)
2010 Diamond League champion in the 200m and 400m
USA Junior and high school 200m record holder (22.51)
Five-time California state prep champion (three-time 100m, two-time 200m)
2001 World Youth 100m gold medalist