Allyson Felix Announces She Has Given Birth to a Girl

By Adam Kopet

Allyson Felix wrote a piece for ESPN on Thursday that detailed surprising news that she has become a mother. 

If you were unaware that Felix was pregnant, let alone married, you would not be alone. Felix has long maintained her privacy and that was the more evident in 2018.

This year was supposed to be a down year for Felix as she prepared to make a run at her fifth Olympic Games in 2020. She planned to run a shortened season, however, her season was cut even further short by pregnancy.

Felix competed in four meets this year. She opened her season at the Mt. SAC Relays with a leg on a 4x100-meter relay. She followed that in May with a 100-meter win in a meet on the island of Guadeloupe. Then in June, Felix ran two 400-meter races in Poland and France.

Those races in Europe saw her run slower than expected, leading Felix to tell her brother and agent, Wes Felix, that she was eight weeks pregnant. It was then decided she would shut down her season.

However, Felix's pregnancy did not end on the happiest of notes. Felix was admitted to the hospital the week following Thanksgiving after her doctor became concerned during her 32-week checkup. Baby Camryn was born Nov. 28 by emergency C-section.

Camryn was immediately taken to the NICU, having been born about seven weeks premature. She weighed only 3 pounds, 7 ounces.

Both Felix and her daughter are doing well, although Camryn is still in the NICU. Felix and her husband, Kenneth, are embarking on the new adventure of being parents together.

Felix wrote that she intends to return to the track and attempt to qualify for the 2020 Olympics, but she now has new priorities as well.

Camryn👶🏾💛my little fighter💕 pic.twitter.com/kmLDOlI3Kp

— Allyson Felix (@allysonfelix) December 20, 2018