WWC Spotlight: A Toast to Women Athletes

Through our Wise Women Collective, we celebrate women whom we admire and who inspire. In celebration of the start of the world games, we are raising our glasses to all women who have reached the top of their sport and highlight some extraordinary women who are empowering others to pursue their dreams, and use their voices.

Allyson Felix, Track and Field

Allyson Felix has long been a champion of athlete mothers and has become an advocate for moms across America, especially women of color. After experiencing a scare in the third trimester of her first pregnancy and needing an emergency c-section, it opened her eyes to the risks that women without great medical care can be faced with while pregnant.

Felix partners with the organization Better Starts For All, a maternal health program that offers on-the-ground clinical care and virtual interventions to bring maternal health care to underserved communities. The CDC reports that every year, about 700 women die from childbirth and pregnancy in the United States — the highest rate of any country in the developed world. The numbers are even more staggering for women of color: Black women are about three times as likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause as white women.

Felix also recently announced a partnership with the athleisure brand Athleta and the Women’s Sports Foundation to create The Power of She Fund: Child Care Grants. The program has committed $200,000 to professional athlete mothers with the goal of covering childcare costs as they pursue goals in their respective sports while balancing motherhood.