Track star Allyson Felix was immersed in her busy retirement plans, eating hot wings and root beer floats when she received a call informing her that she would be coming out of retirement for a bit. The U.S. Women’s Track Team needed her in Oregon’s prelims of the 4X400 women’s relay on Saturday.
“I was at Halloween’s cafe, one of my favorite cheat-meal restaurants,” she said. “I was having hot wings and a root beer float, and I was just diving into that when I got a phone call. They just asked if I would be willing to come back and run around and help the team get a position, and so I dropped the wing.”
She hopped on a plane to Oregon after contacting her coach Bobby Kersee for workouts.
“To me, it is an honor to come here and run in front of a home crowd and help the team,” she said. “That is what it is all about. Bobby gave me a couple more workouts, and then I jumped on a plane to head back here.”
Thanks to the help of the 35-year-old, America qualified for the final on Sunday after running the U.S. team’s fastest, 50.61 seconds. America posted the shortest qualifying time with 3 minutes, 23.38 seconds.
.@allysonfelix postponed her retirement to compete for Team USA in the women’s 4x400m relay at the World Athletics Championships ?
She ran a leg of the race in 50.7 seconds ?
(via @NBCOlympics)pic.twitter.com/p3205hyLau
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) July 24, 2022
Felix didn’t run in the final but earned her 20th World Championship medal after the U.S. won their third women’s 4×400 meters relay world title on Sunday with 3 minutes, 17 seconds.
As for her possibly running again, it seems Felix wants to continue enjoying her hot wings and root beer floats in retirement, saying she was only “asked to run in the prelim” and that it was all about “being a team player” and putting the team in a position “to run their best.”
