Everyone Can Be a Ninja by Akbar Gbajabiamila

Author:Akbar Gbajabiamila
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gallery Books

THE FEAR OF EXPECTATIONS

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To the outsider, Allyson Felix’s story is one of perpetual triumphs. She has won nine Olympic medals (six golds), which is tied for the record for the most medals won by a female Olympian in track and field. By any measurement, Allyson Felix has achieved greatness.

I first met Allyson Felix through our work together on my friend and former teammate Nnamdi Asomugha’s foundation. The Asomugha Foundation seeks to provide educational opportunities for disadvantaged youth and women, a cause that both Allyson and I share. In the years that I’ve gotten to know Allyson, I’ve discovered more than just an astounding athlete. She’s a woman who has overcome tremendous failures and fears in her life. Her road might be paved with Olympic medals, but it was a long, hard road for Allyson.

Like me, Allyson started down her athletic career with a passion for basketball. It was only during her sophomore year in high school, when she was trying to fit in at a new school, that her father and brother, runners themselves, encouraged her to try out for the track team to make friends.

“My career started much later than most Olympic athletes,” she told me. “By the time a runner is in high school, they’ve usually been doing the sport for several years, since grade school.”

Her new teammates, although realizing Allyson’s potential, gave her the nickname “Chicken Legs.” Allyson didn’t love it. At five feet six, 125 pounds, Allyson’s skinny appearance masked her tremendous strength. The name stuck, however, and in time Allyson proved to her teammates that appearances don’t matter. By her senior year, Allyson had been named High School Athlete of the Year by Track & Field News. Graduating in 2003, Allyson caused a bit of controversy when she signed a contract with Adidas, which would make her ineligible to compete at the college level. But Allyson had her sights set beyond college. Besides, part of the deal with Adidas was that the company would pay for her tuition. College was an educational venture for Allyson. She would pursue her athletic dreams outside college.

Allyson competed in her first Olympics at the 2004 Summer Games in Athens. She won the silver in the 200 meters. She was just eighteen. How does an eighteen-year-old handle that kind of pressure?

“At the beginning I didn’t realize there was pressure,” she told me. She was a kid, a bit overwhelmed at the moment and the stage, but also just happy to be there.

Between Olympics, she won golds at the World Championships and the IAFF World Championships in Athletics. Everything was all set to capture the gold in the 200 meters in Beijing in 2008.

Except she didn’t. The expectations for Allyson before Beijing couldn’t have been higher. She had fans, sponsors, her teammates, an entire nation rooting for her—and assuming she’d come home with the gold. Her youth and inexperience had put Allyson on the media’s radar after Athens; now she was the seasoned veteran, a favorite, anything but an underdog.

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