Track and field icon, Olympic legend, 14-time World Champion, mother and entrepreneur Allyson Felix is officially joining another esteemed rank of elite athletes as she prepares to be inducted into the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee Hall of Fame Class of 2025.
"The class is so incredible -- Serena [Williams], Gabby [Douglas] and Kerri [Walsh Jennings], Anita DeFrantz -- these legendary people that have provided so much inspiration to me, and so just to be with them and in their company is incredible, it's humbling," Felix told "Good Morning America" in an interview ahead of the induction ceremony in Colorado Springs on Saturday, July 12. "I've reflected on my journey in my career and I feel just very blessed to be here."
In a professional career that spanned nearly two decades, Felix not only raised but set the bar in her sport, becoming the most decorated athlete in the history of track and field, with 31 medals across the Olympic Games and World Championships.
Felix is in the esteemed company of fellow Team USA 2025 USOPC Hall of Fame inductees Steve Cash (sled hockey), Gabby Douglas (artistic gymnastics), Anita DeFrantz (legend: rowing), Susan Hagel (Para archery, Para track and field, wheelchair basketball), Flo Hyman (legend: indoor volleyball), Kerri Walsh Jennings (beach volleyball), Mike Krzyzewski (coach: basketball), Phil Knight (special contributor: Nike founder), Bode Miller (alpine skiing), Marla Runyan (Para track and field), Serena Williams (tennis), the 2010 Four-man Bobsled Team, and the 2004 Women's Wheelchair Basketball Team.
When it comes to her personal Olympics highlight reel that will replay in her head on Saturday as she joins the prestigious ranks of Hall of Fame athletes, there's one race moment that Felix said stands out from the rest.
"For me it's the last -- it's just a culmination of everything, of all the hard work," she said. "In the end, so much of it was pushing for the medals, but it was actually like purpose and being a mother and all those things that when I got in the sport, I never would have dreamt of or imagined had the biggest impression on me. So I keep coming back to that final moment, and that's the one that sticks with me."
For the Los Angeles native, meeting her hero-turned Team USA teammate Kobe Bryant in the Olympic Village at the 2008 Beijing Games was certainly a standout moment.
"He just casually strolled through, and I got to have the first time that I ever met him be this moment where you get to meet athletes that you've always admired," Felix said. "To me, it was just like, this is what the Olympics is about, because he was in there really taking in all the things."
She said for Bryant to recognize her "was like the thing that blew me away."
"I got to know Kobe later on. He has that ability. He was so brilliant and made everyone feel special, but that was my first instance of it," she said. "What a cool and unforgettable moment for me."
After first representing Team USA in 2004 at the Athens Games, Felix's five consecutive Olympics resulted in 11 medals, including seven golds.
At the Olympic Games London 2012, Felix captured three three gold medals at the 2012 Olympic Games in London, setting a world record in the 4x100-meter relay. According to her Team USA bio, she also "holds the record for the most career medals at the World Athletics Championships, with 20 in total."
Although Felix said her home isn't filled with her sports memorabilia, she told "GMA" there are moments with her daughter when "she'll see a picture, or I have to take a medal to an appearance, and I'm like, 'Wait I don't think she's seen these!' And just watching her get to see them up close, it's really special."
Off the track, the 39-year-old mother of two, who sits on the USOPC Board of Directors, has been a vocal advocate for maternity health, gender equity and worked to help create pathways for women to succeed in sports, business and family life.
As an entrepreneur -- she co-founded Saysh with her brother Wes to champion women's specific needs in footwear, as well as Always Alpha, the first talent management firm fully focused on women's sports -- Felix said her own businesses have "given me a brand new challenge" while her on-track career came to a close.
"I've been able to bring all the things that made me reach greatness in my sport now into this new phase," she said. "And it hasn't been, like, smooth or easy. It has been a lot of learnings and a lot ups and downs, but I absolutely love that I get to make shoes for women and I get to represent female athletes, especially in this time where women's sports is having so much momentum."
Felix said she feels hyped about the next generation of up-and-coming female athletes. Among them is fellow USC Trojan JuJu Watkins, a star guard on the school's women's basketball team.
"I'm just mesmerized by her," Felix said. "I think she's really the future."
She added, "Coco Gauff is someone who is just so exciting to watch. I also love Naomi Osaka and just how vulnerable she has been with her [mental health] journey. When I think of my daughter, like, looking at this generation of athletes, I get really excited, because there's so much variety of what strength looks like, of different bodies, so much beauty. And I think we're in great hands."
The biggest lesson Felix said she's "come back to time and time again is that failure is inevitable."
"I remember in my career failing on the biggest stage, and it felt like it was paralyzing, and it took me to some really dark places. But I can look back and say I'm so grateful for those moments, they provided me to have success later on," she explained. "I learned so much from them. I think that's true in life, it's a lesson I'm really thankful I got to learn."
As for the affirmation that carries her through her everyday life: "I am enough."
"It just reminds me, I'm enough. Like, I'm not defined by the outcome of this race -- I'm still me and I am still worthy," Felix said. "As a competitive athlete, sometimes you get lost in that. And in life, I think sometimes you got lost in that. So, that's one that always brings me back, no matter the circumstances -- I'm still me, I'm still enough."
As the 2028 Olympics prepare to set up shop in Felix's own backyard -- Los Angeles -- she said she's "really excited" to return to her old stomping grounds at the University of Southern California and the Coliseum to cheer on all things track and field.
"I love the relays, the team aspect, the 4x1, the 4x4. We have such strong teams, and it's really cool now that we'll be at home," she said. "In my lifetime, I've only been able to see that on TV from the '96 Games -- it's so exciting."
In a divided world both politically and socially, Felix noted that "sports allows this escape -- it has the power to bring people together."
"We see it in the Olympics every two years, and you see this ability to put our differences aside and to really just pour into the beauty of athleticism," she said. "My hope for athletes as well is that we'll be able to provide some of that joy that's been missing and that we all need."
