Fast and Slow: Discovering Strength Beyond Speed: A Memoir

The most decorated athlete in track and field history reveals how her journey to becoming a mother turned into the fight of her life—and pushed her to find her voice as an advocate and champion, on and off the track I’m really, really fast. But there’s no such thing as “fast” inside a delivery room. Allyson Felix, one of the fastest women in the world, meticulously planned out her life according to the rigid training and competition schedule expected of all top female runners. From a young age she witnessed older teammates wrestle with the decision to have a child. Motherhood, Allyson learned, was a high-stakes game that for too many women meant the end of everything they worked so hard for. But at thirty-three, the sports icon knew she was ready to become a mother herself. She gave birth to a baby girl, Camryn, delivered prematurely after Allyson was diagnosed with severe pre-eclampsia, a condition that, she learned, disproportionately impacts Black mothers like her. The experience left both mother and daughter fighting for their lives, and Allyson emerged from the traumatic ordeal forever changed.