Athletics Australia – News – THE BEST KIND OF INSPIRATION: Ella Nelson meets Allyson Felix

Olympic champion Allyson Felix (USA) has spent the best part of the past week in Sydney (NSW) on holidays. On the hunt for training facilities, Athletics Australia has worked with her management to provide access to the great facilities at Sydney Olympic Park.

Felix also provided some of Australia's best up and coming junior female sprinters with an opportunity to take part in a meet and greet with her following a training session. One of these athletes was Ella Nelson, who last year competed alongside her Australian Spark teammates at the World Junior Championships.

Here are Nelson's thoughts after what can only be described as the best kind of inspiration…

As an athlete, you’re often asked the same kind of questions – what’s your PB? What is your favourite event? And who is your favourite athlete? My answer to the latter would always be the same, the three-time world champion and Olympic gold medallist, Allyson Felix.
 
Allyson is known for her long stride and relaxed running style whilst being able to blitz out world-class times in the 100m, 200m and 400m. This year at the London Olympic Games Allyson accomplished a goal that all athletes strive toward – winning gold in the 200m in a personal best time of 21.88 seconds. She also took home another two gold medals in the 4x100m and 4x400m, showing her unique and diverse sprinting ability as well as her experience as an elite athlete.
 
Today, after an invitation from Athletics Australia, I was lucky enough to meet Allyson along with my fellow training partner Samantha Geddes and coach Michael Dooley. Being able to watch how she trains and her attitude whilst being at the track continued to prove to me why she is such an amazing athlete and why she has been able to accomplish the brilliant things she has in her career. After watching Allyson complete her session of 3 x 500m at tempo pace running alongside NSW athlete Charlotte Van Veendendaal, she sat down with us all and chatted about training, competing on the big stage, how she likes Sydney and what her hobbies are outside of the sport. The advice we gained from Allyson was priceless.
 
In the past Allyson has won silver medals at the Olympics in Athens in 2004 and Beijing in 2008 which according to her, was motivation enough to put in another 4 years of hard work with her coach Bobby Kersee in striving towards gold. I asked Allyson what it was like to complete her ultimate goal, she said it was “very satisfying, a relief and a lot of joy as well. Especially with the achievements of the US relay teams and being able to share the special moment with friends who you have completed the journey with and supported each other along the way”.
 
Allyson was also a successful junior athlete. After starting track and field at the age of 14 through high school, she managed to come first in the 100m at the World Youth Championships in 2001 and placed 5^th at the World Junior Championships in the 200m the following year. On the transition of becoming a senior athlete from a junior athlete, Allyson stated to “be patient, that the workload will increase and you will need to work harder towards becoming a senior athlete but enjoy the journey and give yourself as many experiences as you can get running against the older athletes and to not forget that your time will come.”
 
In relation to injuries, a commonality among elite athletes, Allyson believes that “listening to your body is very important and something my coach taught me at an early age as it is better to rest then to over train… It’s a hard thing for an athlete to grasp as you feel like you’re getting behind but it is far better to rest, listen to your body and be in good health rather than to be out of competition”.
 
Allyson‘s motivation to push herself towards her achievements are “having goals definitely motivate me, I set yearly goals and am working towards the world championships this year. I always want to PB in a year and that is another big motivator, and then there are my mentors. My mentor is Jackie Joyner-Kersee and she is a huge motivation to me. What she did on the track, what she did off the track and just the person she is, is someone I would like to be like. So she is a huge source of inspiration to me”
 
Allyson was easy to talk to and showed both her professional side and her kind personality sharing stories of her days in Sydney, her work with Nike, her love of ice cream, how like any other athlete she is nervous before a competition no matter how big. To say I was star struck today would be an understatement, I gained so much motivation and great advice from my idol and I had beyond an incredible time meeting her and am blessed to have had this opportunity.

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