Seven-time Olympic champion Allyson Felix announces plans to retire after 2022 season

By Issy Ronald, CNN

Updated 0944 GMT (1744 HKT) April 14, 2022

Allyson Felix won seven Olympic titles during her prolific career.

(CNN)Allyson Felix — the most decorated US track and field athlete in Olympics history — announced that she plans to retire following the conclusion of the 2022 season.

During her illustrious career, she won 11 Olympic medals — seven of them gold — and 13 world championship titles. «As a little girl they called chicken legs, never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined I'd have a career like this,» Felix said in an Instagram post Wednesday. «I have so much gratitude for this sport that has changed my life. I have given everything I have to running and for the first time I'm not sure if I have anything left to give.»The 36-year-old began her career specializing in the 200 meters, winning an Olympic silver at Athens 2004 and becoming the youngest ever world champion in the discipline in 2005 at age 19.Read MoreHer first Olympic success came at the 2008 Beijing Games when she guided the US women's 4x400m relay team to a gold medal.Felix won the last Olympic gold medal of her career in the 4x400m relay in Tokyo.This was the first of six relay Olympic gold medals — four as part of the 4x400m relay and two in the 4x100m relay. Felix was also crowned the individual 200m champion in 2012.«I want to say goodbye and thank you to the sport and people who have helped shape me the only way I know how — with one last run. This season isn't about the time on the clock, it's simply about joy,» her Instagram post continued. Outside of athletics, Felix has highlighted the issue of maternal mortality among Black women, testifying before the House Committee on Ways and Means, after she gave birth to her