“It just feels like we’re part of history,” Godwin said.
It’s nowhere near the 47.72-second split she ran in a gold-medal 4×400 at worlds in 2015 - still the fastest ever by an American woman - but that was hardly the point. The stat sheet said Felix ran her final 400 meters in 50.15 seconds. She has opened a better path for all of us.” “But for me she will always be the best in the world. “I’ve defeated her two times,” said Paulino, who finished second in the 400 in Tokyo. “Over the span of the years she did it, she became an icon, and for us to come out and compete with her, it’s a blessing to have that opportunity.” “There’s not one single story that can explain the impact that she had on the sport,” said Elijah Godwin, who ran the first leg and was the last teammate to hand the baton to Felix. Any running at all, let alone medals to go with it, feel like a bonus at this point. It left both her and her daughter, Cammy, fighting for survival in a hospital room. Much of that stemmed from becoming a mom, then fighting, and eventually leaving, Nike, which cut her salary while she was pregnant.įelix also had an emergency C-section eight weeks short of her due date.
The once-shy teenager is now an outspoken advocate for women and moms both in and out of sports. “The last couple of years, I’ve stepped outside of just the clock and the medals, and I never would have imagined that would have been a place where I would come to.”