Allyson Felix had already secured a spot on her fifth Olympic team simply by qualifying into the women’s 400m final.
But being a member of the relay team was not enough for one of the sport’s most decorated athletes, so on Sunday night Felix finished in the top three to guarantee entry into the individual 400m event in Tokyo.
She turned up the speed in the final few meters of the race to pass Kendall Ellis and Wadeline Jonathas and finish second, in 50.02 seconds, to winner Quanera Hayes, who guaranteed her Olympic debut in 49.78 seconds.
“Man, it has been a fight to get here, and one thing I know how to do is fight, so I just did that all the way home,” Felix told NBC reporter Lewis Johnson.
A nine-time Olympic medalist, Felix is the most decorated woman in the sport’s Olympic history and with just one more medal this summer she would also tie Carl Lewis for the most decorated U.S. track and field athlete.
She has the potential to race in the 400m, 4x400m relay and mixed 4x400m relay, which makes its Olympic debut this year. Felix is also planning to race the 200m later this week at Olympic Trials in hopes of creating options for herself; the Tokyo schedule only allows runners to compete either the 200m or the 400m.
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Felix has been racing at U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials since she was 18 years old, but this year’s has proven to be her most fun.
“It’s probably the most I’ve taken everything in and savored it, and kind of just looked around, so in that respect, for sure,” she said following Saturday’s semifinal.
Also taking in their surroundings are her husband Kenneth Ferguson and 2-year-old daughter Cammy from the Hayward Field standings.
Felix committed to a fifth Olympic campaign in part to show her daughter that anything is possible.
She had an emergency C-section while only 32 weeks pregnant, in November 2018; Cammy weighed 3 pounds, 7 ounces, and spent the first few weeks of her life in the NICU.
The birth was life-threatening to Felix herself, who has since returned to being one of the nation’s fastest women, and hopes to be fastest in the world in a month’s time.
“Today I thought about all the things,” Felix told Johnson while lying on the track post-race with Cammy. “I thought about us fighting in the NICU, fighting for my life, fighting to get on this track.”
VIDEO: Allyson Felix pens powerful letter to her daughter
Another reason she committed to returning to the Olympic stage was her finish in Rio. Felix took silver behind Bahama’s Shaunae Miller-Uibo, who dove for the gold.
After winning 200m gold in London, after 200m silvers at the previous two Games, Felix is hungry for another individual gold.
Felix will join a list of just 15 U.S. women who have competed at five or more Olympic Games, only three of whom – Amy Acuff, Gail Devers and Willye White – did so in track and field.
She already owns more Olympic medals than all but one of those 15 athletes – 12-time medalist swimmer Dara Torres – and will look to add to that haul at the age of 35.
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Allyson Felix qualifies for fifth Olympic team – this time as a mother originally appeared on NBCSports.com