Allyson Felix says she is coming out of retirement to pursue a place on the U.S. track and field team for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, a comeback bid that would put one of the sport’s most decorated athletes back on the Olympic stage in her home city.
Felix, an 11-time Olympic medalist, told Time she plans to make the attempt after retiring following the 2022 track season. She would be 42 when the Los Angeles Games begin, making the bid as much a test of longevity as speed.
“So many of us have been told not to do the big, bold thing,” Felix told Time, according to Fox News Digital. “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.”
A rare path for a sprinter
Felix’s résumé is already among the most accomplished in Olympic track. She has won 11 Olympic medals, including seven golds, across five Games. Her Olympic career began in Athens in 2004, where she won silver in the 200 meters. She later won relay gold in Beijing, three gold medals in London, and continued competing for the United States in Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo.
If Felix were to qualify for the 2028 team, Fox News reported, she would become the first American sprinter to reach the Olympics in their 40s. The task would be steep in an event group where U.S. depth is significant; Fox cited Sha’Carri Richardson, Melissa Jefferson-Wooden and Gabby Thomas among the sprinters who could be in the mix for Olympic team spots.
Felix has framed the attempt partly as a challenge to assumptions about age in elite sport, mentioning athletes such as Tom Brady, LeBron James and Lindsey Vonn in discussing examples of high-level competition past 40.
Still involved in Olympic sport
Even after leaving the track, Felix has remained close to the Olympic movement. She was inducted into the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Hall of Fame in 2025 and has served on the International Olympic Committee’s Athlete’s Commission and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s board of directors.
Fox reported that Felix returned to competitive running last year and said she plans to begin serious training for the Olympic bid in October. The comeback effort still leaves the central question unresolved: whether Felix can move from intention to qualification in one of the most competitive sprint programs in the world.
If she does not make the U.S. team, Felix said she still expects to be at the Los Angeles Games with her children, cheering for the Americans competing on home soil.
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