Allyson Felix Explains Why Winning Bronze at 2020 Tokyo Olympics Was ‘More Joyful’ Than Other Medals (Exclusive)

Allyson Felix is the most decorated American track and field athlete in Olympic history as she has won 11 Olympic medals in her storied career. But there’s one medal that means more to her than the rest. PopCulture.com recently spoke to Felix who revealed that the bronze medal she won during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics means a lot to her because of what she had to go through to earn the medal. 

“I think any other Olympics, a bronze medal would be almost disappointing to me,” Felix said, “but having overcome everything that I did and being an older athlete and just kind of the combination of all those things that I was fighting against, it just made it… I think I was more joyful for that medal than so many of the other ones. So yeah, I definitely had a different approach and really a different motivation this time around.”

Felix won bronze in the 400-meter race, making it the first time she won a bronze medal in the Olympics. She didn’t perform well in the Olympic trials but did enough to qualify. Along with that and being an older competitor at 35 years old, there were some experts who didn’t believe that Felix would be standing on the podium in Tokyo. But Felix proved the doubters wrong by being on the podium twice. She also won the gold medal in the 4×400 meter relay to earn her seventh gold medal in her Olympic career. 

Along with having Olympic success, Felix is making sure everyone knows about the social drivers of health. She has recently partnered up with Anthem Inc. to promote the belief that everyone must understand how our circumstances impact our health. This week, Anthem launched the Driving our Health study, which confirms that nearly half (46%) of adults in the country don’t recognize the concept of how air quality, access to transportation, and financial security impact their health.

“I never really thought of them being directly related to my health,” Felix said. “Partnering with Anthem and understanding the statistics and some of their findings and that almost 50% of Americans are unfamiliar. It was really kind of shocking to this and understanding that we have to really take a holistic approach to this and kind of redefine how we approach our health.”