Allyson Felix’s return in her 40s is about more than glory — it’s about longevity

Allyson Felix is preparing to return to track and field at a time when more and more athletes are aging gracefully.

In 2004, at the age of 18, Allyson Felix first began her Olympic track career. In the over 20 years since, the sprinter has become the most decorated track and field athlete in the history of sport, with five different summer games and 31 total medals (11 Olympic medals and 20 World Championship medals), led groundbreaking change towards equality in the sport for women, and launched a top-selling shoe brand, Saysh, that puts mothers first.    

The next major accomplishment she has set her sights on is returning to the sport in her 40s and, in the process, proving that athletes, particularly Black women athletes, aren’t done when society thinks they should be.

On Thursday, May 7, during an appearance on the “Today Show,” she admitted that her return to track for the upcoming 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles isn’t just about glory, like the way a lot of outlets have framed it, but rather it’s about proving longevity can exist well beyond what has largely been viewed as a prime athletic age. 

“I think women, especially when we get to 40, there’s this narrative that’s being told of what we should be doing, and maybe we shouldn’t be going after the big, bold goal, and we should be slowing down. I’m just exploring what it looks like not to listen to that,” she said. 

When she returns to the sport during the Olympics, which will be taking place in her hometown, the wife and mother of two will be 42.  

“I’ve been so inspired,” she said of athletes like Lindsay Vaughn, who made a comeback in her early 40s during the Winter Olympics. 

“I was just so impacted in thinking about what is still possible,” she continued. 

Felix has been able to draw inspiration from a mix of fellow athletes, as the Xennial and millennial generations have been actively participating at increasingly higher rates, and continue to pursue greatness in really demanding physical careers—from NBA legend LeBron James to tennis champion Venus Williams.

“At first, I felt like maybe there wasn’t really permission to be able to do something like this at this age,” she added. “But then I was really encouraged to see so many other athletes really still pushing the limits.”

At the age of 45, Venus returned to tennis in July 2025 at the DC Open and has since broken the record for the oldest woman to compete in the Australian Open in January. Meanwhile, at age 44, her sister Serena, after soft-launching retirement, has been teasing a potential return to the sport.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, one of the fastest women in the world, only just officially wrapped things up at age 38 in 2025 with the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo. Then, Olympic bobsledder, Elana Meyes Taylor, at age 41, made history as the oldest woman to win an individual gold medal during the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. At 35, WNBA star Britney Griner often lands on lists for athletes pushing the boundaries of age in addition to figures like James and even Lewis Hamilton. 

While there are several different factors leading to more and more athletes aging gracefully, in particular, this generation of athletes sits at a really fascinating intersection of the evolution of sports science and wealth, affording them greater physical autonomy; culturally, Xennials and elder millennials have blown up a lot of older conventions and thinking around aging across the board. 

While on NBC News, Felix attributed the key difference to training and prep this time around. She also noted how she’s doing this to show her children it’s possible. 

“I wanted to show my kids what it looks like to go after something. And it may not work out, but it’s really the courage to try that. I want to demonstrate for them,” she said. 

On Friday, May 8, the track and field star posted a video on Instagram in which she told her daughter she would be training for another Olympics. In the video, when Felix explains she’s going to “try her best to run again and try to make the team,” her daughter responds, “I wanna make the team!”