Allyson Felix revealed on Monday that she will come out of retirement, restart her track career and turn her attention to making Team USA’s roster for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
“So many of us have been told not to do the big, bold thing,” Felix said in an interview with Time. “You know, at this age, I should probably be staying home and taking care of my kids, doing all that. And just, why not? Let’s flip it on its head. Let’s go after the thing. Let’s be vulnerable.”
Felix, 40, retired in 2022 as arguably the most decorated track and field athlete in history, with seven Olympic gold medals and 11 overall along. She also has a staggering 14 world championship gold medals and 20 in total.
She plans to start training in October and developing a plan with Bobby Kersee, who also coaches Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. Felix said the prospect of making a team and being introduced at the 2028 Games in front her hometown crowd in Los Angeles was part of her motivation to attempt a comeback.
Last year as Felix contemplated returning to track, she created a presentation called “Project Six” that would represent her reaching her sixth Olympic Games. She would later make a formal pitch to her brother Wes who is also her business partner, with the document making a serious case for her racing competitively again.
If Felix does make Team USA’s roster in 2028, she will be 42 at the start of the Games and understands the work she faces since no American sprinter has ever made the Olympics in their 40s.
Based on her training plan with Kersee, Felix will ramp up her workouts by 2027 and enter competitions in the U.S. She will not make any international appearances at events like the Diamond League circuit. The races she enters next year will be part of ensuring that she can qualify for the U.S. Olympic Team Trials.
Felix will chronicle her comeback journey on a website, moreinus.com, which included a message that her efforts to be competitive in this era of track and field is something she is already taking seriously.
“This is not a nostalgia tour. This is not a victory lap. This is an experiment in human possibility. This is permission to pursue an audacious goal. And every woman who has ever been told her best days are behind her is part of it.”
Since retirement, Felix has taken on several business ventures, including launching footwear brandy Saysh and founding Always Alpha, a talent management agency alongside Wes and Cosette Chaput.
