Allyson Felix

Allyson Michel Felix was born on 18 November 1985 in Los Angeles. Paul Felix, her father, was an ordained pastor at Master's Seminary Sun Valley. Marlean Felix worked at Balboa Magnet Elementary School. Felix was an athletically inclined child and discovered her love of sprinting while in the sprints at Los Angeles Baptist High School. Ten weeks after the first attempt she made, she was ranked second in 200m in the U.S. Indoor Track and Field Championship. Felix graduated from high school and subsequently signed an agreement to Adidas. In 2004, she began her studies at her first year at the University of Southern California, which is where she studied elementary education. The first Olympic medal came during the 2004 Summer Olympics which took place at Athens Greece. Felix set an international junior record sprinting 200 meters in 22.18 secs. She was the youngest 200-meter world champion during the Helsinki World Championships. She defended this title in 2007, defeating her longtime Jamaican competitor Veronica Campbell. Felix always placed in the top third of each of her events in Beijing London Rio de Janeiro Tokyo.