Allyson Felix hopes to help Los Angeles stay in the running for 2024 Olympics
Allyson Felix hopes to help Los Angeles stay in the running for 2024 Olympics
It seems that Allyson Felix showed up a little late.
Born in 1985, she just missed the Olympic Games in Los Angeles and, more specifically, the track and field competition at the Coliseum.
Her family has pictures from that summer. People she knows — older people — have told her how much fun it was. “Everyone has such great stories,” she said.
A tinge of envy has stuck with Felix over the years as she has become a star sprinter, winning nine medals in Games spanning from Athens in 2004 to Rio de Janeiro last August.
So many times, stepping up to the starting line at the Olympics, she has heard the cheering for hometown athletes.
“You go, man, I wish I were that person,” she said.
With maybe a handful of years left in her competitive career, Felix will never know the feeling. So she’s hoping for the next best thing. This week, the 30-year-old is taking a break from her training schedule to help LA 2024, the private committee trying to bring the Games back to Southern California.
Felix has accompanied bid leaders — including Mayor Eric Garcetti and Olympic swimmer Janet Evans — to a general assembly in Doha, Qatar, that draws International Olympic Committee members and sports officials from around the world.
The annual gathering of the Assn. of National Olympic Committees represents the first opportunity for the three 2024 candidates — L.A., Paris and Budapest, Hungary — to formally present their proposals.
Felix served as one of the key speakers on Tuesday.
“I believe L.A. is a perfect choice for the 2024 Games, because the face of our city reflects the face of the Olympic movement itself,” she said during her segment of the presentation.
The ANOC assembly represents a vital test for L.A., given the tumult surrounding the recent presidential election.
Some IOC members who will vote to select a host city next September have expressed concern about Donald Trump and his campaign proposals regarding NATO, immigration and international trade.
U.S. Olympic sprinter Allyson Felix is joining LA2024 and traveling to Doha to pitch officials on the idea of bringing the Olympics back to Los Angeles at the annual ANOC conference.
Though Felix did not mention Trump by name, she suggested that last week’s election results may have left some questioning the commitment of the U.S. to “its founding principles.”
“Please don’t doubt us. America’s diversity is our greatest strength,” she told the assembly. “Diversity is not easy. Diversity is a leap of faith that embraces all faiths.”
She added: “I want to tell you about the America that I love, and the America that needs the Games to help make our nation better — now more than ever.”
The political maneuverings of the Olympic movement are something new for a woman who has made her career thus far on the track.
Felix was 18 when she took silver in the 200 meters at Athens. Four years later, in Beijing, she again finished second at that distance and, despite a gold in the 1,600-meter relay, faced doubts about winning an individual championship.
The 2012 London Olympics solved the problem with gold medals in the 200, 400 relay and 1,600 relay.
Rio didn’t go quite as well. After an injury-plagued spring, she failed to qualify for the 200, running the 400 and losing by .07 of a second when Shaunae Miller of the Bahamas dove across the finish line. But with golds in the 400- and 1,600-meter relays, she stands tied with Merlene Ottey of Jamaica as the most-decorated female in Olympic track and field history.
With the IOC pushing the idea of athlete-centric bids, it makes sense that L.A. has enlisted Felix and other Olympians for its campaign; Paris 2024 has its own gold medalist in former canoeist Tony Estanguet.
In addition to helping with L.A.’s presentation, Felix was in Doha to join in behind-the-scenes work — the casual conversations that take place between sessions and after-hours.
She planned to talk to international officials about Olympic history in the U.S. and her experiences at previous Games. “Things that went well and went wrong,” she said.
Discussing the Games on a recent afternoon at the Coliseum, she kept returning to the word “passionate.”
“It’s different when you experience an Olympics up close,” she said. “It changes your thoughts and how you view sports.”
Asked if she any designs on running for eight more years, Felix smiled and shook her head. If L.A. wins the bid, a new generation will compete in her hometown.
Some of that old envy might creep back. Still, she said, “I’ll hopefully be able to enjoy it and take it in from a different vantage point.”
Go beyond the scoreboard
Get the latest on L.A.'s teams in the daily Sports Report newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
