Allyson Felix retires with unmistakably historic legacy

EUGENE, Oregon – The moment was both majestic, and at the same time lacking in appropriate majesty. Majestic, because the athlete was Allyson Felix, at 36 years old, the most decorated woman ever in track and field, running the last competitive lap of her life and adding yet another medal to the heaviest collection in the sport’s long history. Lacking in majesty, because the event was the second leg on a mixed 4×400-meter relay on the first night of the 18th Track and Field World Championships, but the first in Felix’s home country, in a city where she could apply to receive mail, because she has raced here so often and so brilliantly. And because the United States won a bronze medal, not gold, a minor quibble in the end.

Felix’s last dance began at a tick before 7:51 Pacific Daylight Time Friday night, when she snatched a white relay baton out of the hand of U.S. leadoff runner Elijah Goodwin, who – requisite perspective in any Felix tale – was four years old when Felix competed in her first Worlds, in 2003 in Paris. The crowd at Eugene’s new Hayward Field (which was not full for the first night session of the competition, which may or may not be an ominous sign) roared ever louder in response. Felix was required to stay in lane 6 around one turn, and then floated through small rays on sunlight at the top of the backstretch before cutting into the rail with a 20-meter lead.

Felix stayed in first down the backstretch and around the final turn, but in the homestretch was decisively caught and passed by Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic. This was not a surprise: Paulino is the fastest woman in the world this year in the 400 meters, with a best of 49.49 seconds (only .23 seconds slower than Felix’s decade-old