Paris (AFP) – US Olympic icon Allyson Felix believes Kamala Harris winning November’s US presidential election would be a “monumental” moment for the country.
Felix, the most decorated athlete in track and field history, told AFP in an interview in Paris on Friday that a Harris victory would inspire black children across the United States.
US vice-president Harris is poised to battle Donald Trump in November after US President Joe Biden dramatically pulled out of the race last week.
A win would make Harris the first woman elected to the White House and only the second black US President after Barack Obama.
“That will be monumental,” mother-of-two Felix said when asked about the prospect of Harris being US president when the next Olympics take place in Los Angeles in 2028.
“I mean, speaking as a mother to a little black girl, I want to see something like that,” the 38-year-old track icon added. “I want her to see something like that, to see that there’s no limitations to what she can do.
“I’ve done things with Kamala over the years before now way before this, so yeah, that would be very special.Super great.”
Felix won a combined 31 Olympic and world championship medals during a glittering athletics career that included seven gold medals across five Olympics appearances between 2004 and 2021.
The American, a vocal advocate for the rights of working mothers, is running for election to the International Olympic Committee’s Athletes Commission and was instrumental in helping set up a nursery at the Olympic village for parents competing at the Paris Olympics.
© 2024 AFP
