SalmonRice wrote:
I adore Allyson Felix and she's been one of the most influential runners in history but this whole issue with her finding a sponsorship has less to do with being pregnant and more the fact she's at the end of her career. [ cut] She looks permanently exhausted in all her photos and while running. It's a simple result of a pro career since she was 18.
[cut] Felix won't be coming back to win Olympic medals or make even teams from this pregnancy. Her body is exhausted, her career was long, her pregnancy was traumatic...none of that leads to great athletic performances. So she signed with a little nobody athletic company as I doubt anyone else offered more than pennies for an aging athlete about to admit the truth and retire.
The idea that Felix's body is exhausted from her long career to my mind is speculation. Possible, but we don't know that. Whether she "looks" exhausted or not is a misleading criterion when she is in the midst of nursing her baby right now, possibly short on sleep, training on top of a mother's duties, depending on how much her husband may or may not be helping out during the intense early phases of childcare post-pregnancy, etc.
Aside from that, there is plenty of empirical evidence that pregnancy improves performances afterward, not the other way around, and that it may induce hormonal changes in the body that have long-lasting positive effects. Of course, the fact she had to have a C-section complicates matters, but there have been numerous female track and field athletes who went on to even better things after having their first baby.
The main issue is really whether Felix's long career has in fact taken enough of a toll on her body to put her past her prime, or simply the fact of her age at 33. Not her pregnancy, per se, unless raising a child might perhaps take a toll on her future motivation, which happens for some women, but for others, no. Will certainly be interesting to see what unfolds, regardless of the outcome.