After being one of the first Olympic athletes to be announced for competition in the Penn Relays, seven-time gold medalist Allyson Felix will no longer be competing this Saturday.
The announcement was published by the Penn Relays official social media channels, with reasons for her absence left unstated.
Felix was scheduled to run the Olympic Development Women's 300m Elite on Saturday afternoon in her first race since the Tokyo Olympics. Complete entries for the event have not yet been finalized.
The Los Angeles native most recently took bronze and gold in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Over her entire career, Felix has won a monstrous 11 Olympic medals and has been to the Olympic Games five times in a row, beginning in 2004 in Athens, Greece.
Her fellow Team USA gold medalists who ran with her in the 4x400m final at the Tokyo Olympics, Sydney McLaughlin and Athing Mu, are still scheduled to compete at the Penn Relays. McLaughlin will appear for the 100m hurdles, and Mu in the 600m, both events running on Saturday afternoon.
At the Penn Relays in 2012, Felix ran in the 4x100m along with Tianna Madison, Felix, Bianca Knight, and Carmelita Jeter, and set a meet record in the event. Just several months later at the London Olympics, the quartet put up a world record in the very same event.
During a news conference prior to her competing at the Penn Relays the next year, Felix talked extensively about her appreciation for the meet and its place in the track world.
"I love the Penn Relays," Felix said. "There really is no environment like this. It's always the highlight to the start of my season to come here and get back with the ladies and work together and just come out and compete and see all this support."
A champion both on the track and in standing against restrictive maternity policies, Felix has been vital to the representation of women athletes in the past several years. Along with competing in her first Olympics as a mother last year, she founded Saysh in June 2021, a lifestyle brand focused on women athletes.
She recently announced her plans to retire following the 2022 season. Her final appearances on the competitive track are scheduled for the United States Championships from June 23-26, and the World Championships from July 15-24, which will take place in Eugene, Or.
The Penn Relays will begin with its first event of the competition Thursday at 9:00 a.m. with the High School Girls' 4x800 Small Schools, and run until Saturday when the headlining talents will compete.
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