On the path, staying in its neighborhood was necessary for the Olympic champion Alison Felix, the most sporty decorated with the path and the field in all ages. Stray outside the lines means not immediate rehabilitation.
About the path, Felix faced a different kind of pressure to stay in her neighborhood – while maintaining good conditions with her primary sponsor, Nike. As for many senior athletes, dealing with the company – the largest shoe and sportswear company in the world – means financial security in a profession that is treated by its nature.
It was a horrific news, then, when Felix publicly took over the company in 2019, he writes New York Times The opening that has criticized motherhood policies of the company that governs the list of female stars.
“I was one of the most widely marketed athletes in Nike. If I am not able to get maternity protection, then who can?” I wrote. “If we have children, we risk cuts in wages from our shepherds during and after pregnancy. It is an example of the sports industry where the rules are still mostly by men and men.”
Alison Felix is competing in the 400 meters of women in the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020 on August 6, 2021
Christian Petersen/Getty Pictures
Her story is narrated on her amazing success in the path and the field, and her battle with Nike, in the documentary Manage the worldIt is directed by Perry Pigz and Matt O'Neil. It was just shown at the Bentonville Film Festival in Arkansas, after holding the first international show on June 5 at the Tripika Festival.
Felix noticed, during a question and answer in the Bentonville, which was moderated by the deadline: “I was a kind of athlete that I put in my head.” He – is. ”
In 2017, the Nike contract in Felix came for renewal. Then 32, Felix understood that she could not dominate her sport for a longer period. Likewise, Nike, who provided her 70 percent reduction.
“They thought I had just finished,” Felix says in the movie. “I felt ignored.”
Olympic hero Alison Felix
Trebika Festival
The sentences were built in the proposed contract stimulating Felix if they continue to reach the platform, and punish them financially if you do not. What complicates things for Felix, she strongly wanted to become pregnant with her husband Kenneth Ferguson. The recovery from pregnancy will postpone attempts to raise more medals, which endangered its income. It is a dilemma, of course, is not faced by male athletes.
“The load in sport was a kiss of death,” says Joanna Hayes, who won the Olympic Gold Medal, Joanna Hayes, in the documentary.
With the documentation of the film, the tense negotiations between Felix, her older brother, Wesy Felix – who runs her career – and Nike. Ultimately, the brother and sister were able to obtain the company to improve its offer a little, but Nike will not be spent in the contract that she was providing specific protection related to motherhood. Obvious reasoning is that Nike does not want to create a precedent for other mathematics in its stable.
“For a person like Alison, as she said, he resides in her own lane, being the good girl, and he does the right thing – to ascend against a company like this, it is great,” I noticed the executive producer Tonya Louis Lee in a question and answer. “Not only that, I mean that they made them change their policy.”
as New York Times It was reported, in just a few months of its publication in Felix, after “a wide public cry and the investigation of Congress, Nike announced a new motherhood policy for all athletes who care … The new contract included sports salaries and 18 -month bonuses on pregnancy. Three other sports companies added protection for motherhood to the athletes supported.”
Matt O'Neil, co -manager, calls what Felix achieved a big victory.
He said: “As you can see as Alison tells the story, and as you see as we tell the story, Nike does the right thing and the needle is transferred and the industry changes.” “Few people do the right thing every time immediately off the bats. I think it is a success story for everyone that industry can change, change is possible, and things move in the right direction.”
O'Neill said that Nike has not publicly commented on the movie since the first world screening in Tripka.
“There was no reaction to the movie itself [from the company]He commented: “But we went to Nike with a series of questions [during production] Since there are many things that are said in the movie, we wanted to have their point of view on the things that have been said. Based on that conversation, nothing has changed in the movie. “
Alison Felix with her daughter Camrin in the trials of the Olympics team and the United States on June 20, 2021
Steve Chambers/Getty Pictures
Felix, now the mother of two children-a boy and a girl-retired in 2022, where she went out with gold in the World Championships in the sequence 4 x 400 meters. This meeting was appropriate, held in Eugene, Oregon, where the Nike Empire was born.
“I was a very special person for the majority of my life, so it was completely different and a great decision to borrow it,” she said about participating in the documentary. “Did you want to be weak? Have you wanted to share this story? And I think the answer that continued to return was just feeling that it could help. I feel it could have some effect.”
Lr Allyson Felix, English Gardner, Tianna Bartoletta and Tori Bowie celebrate after winning gold in the final women's deportation final 4 x 100 meters in the Olympic Games in Rio 2016 on August 19, 2016
Queen Rooney/Getty Pictures
During her career, Felix won several gold in individual events and in the terminal – and the latter was the definition of the common endeavor. Talking about Manage the worldMaintaining the focus on production as a whole.
“This is an incredible team to work with,” she said. “They made me comfortable; it was very comfortable over the years who followed me and I think he was really able to translate, really good. But I think this was the full difference was just the team and their amazing extent.”
