In 2004, then-18-year-old sprinter Allyson Felix went to the Athens Olympics aiming to win gold in the 200-meter dash—and took silver to Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell.

In Beijing in 2008, the two lined up for a rematch, with the same result.

But Felix never took her eyes off the ultimate target, an individual gold medal in the 200 meters. In 2012, she finally achieved it.

Of all her accomplishments—her eight other Olympic medals (including five other golds), her 11 World Championship victories—that one holds the most meaning, she told me on this week’s episode of #WeGotGoals.

“It was eight years of being dedicated and sacrificing and having doubts—you know, is this ever going to come together?” she said. “So being able to accomplish that goal represented so much for myself, and also all the people who supported me.”

Few mortals can even fathom the type of success Felix has seen in her sport. How is it even possible, I asked her, to work toward goals that are so audacious, so otherworldly? Her answer: one day, one hour, one track session at a time.

“Whether that looks like getting through a workout in certain times for a specific day or even to the sense of, I want to do something that takes me out of my comfort zone, I want to try a different event, something I’m not as comfortable with—those are all smaller goals that help me reach some of the bigger ones that can feel just a little harder to achieve,” she says.

It’s a mindset that’s obviously paid off, making her one of the most decorated athletes in track and field history. Along the way, she’s faced setbacks and obstacles, including those early Olympic defeats and a serious hamstring injury in 2013. “I don’t think I ever really get over those moments,” she says. “But they’re always fuel. They’ve taught me so much.”

Felix also finds energy and inspiration in aiding others—especially children—in achieving their goals. She spoke with me on the phone from Abu Dhabi, where she was working to help athletes with intellectual disabilities prepare for sprint events in the upcoming Special Olympics World Summer Games, to be held there in 2019.

“To me, this kind of work is just so meaningful. It truly changes lives. And so to be able to be a part of that, to see people reach their individual goals—it’s a different type of rewarding,” she said.

After all the hardware she’s earned over her 15-year career, Felix isn’t anywhere close to hanging up her track spikes. She’s still looking to compete at the World Championships in 2019 and even to earn a spot on her fifth Olympic team at the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo.

Getting there will require just the right balance of hard work and recovery to keep her body healthy, a line that shifts along with her physiology as she ages. She knows the barriers will be significant—but that’s exactly why she keeps at it.

“I love to challenge myself, I love to do something that doesn't come easy,” she said. “I'm looking forward to the whole process and journey.”

You can follow that journey—along with Felix's work with organizations like Special Olympics—on Twitter and Instagram.

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Show transcription:

JAC: Welcome to #WeGotGoals, a podcast by aSweatLife.com on which we talk to high achievers about their goals. I'm Jeana Anderson Cohen, and with me I have Kristin Geil and Cindy Kuzma.

KG: Good morning Jeana.

JAC: Good morning. Cindy you talked to Allyson Felix this week right.

CK: I did. Oh my gosh it was such an honor to speak with her and I apologize for the quality of the audio. She was on a cell phone. But what a treat to talk to this multiple gold medalist, Olympian, and World Champion. She's had an incredible career as a sprinter, and I was so glad to speak with her about her goals.

KG: Well, what kind of goals is she working on right now?

CK: She is still—believe it or not her first Olympics was in 2004—and she still has her sights set on the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. So if you do the math there, that is incredible. She’s also taking a long term view thinking beyond her career as an athlete. And some of the work that she’s doing right now she was in Abu Dhabi to work with the Special Olympics and really doing a lot of work to help children people with intellectual disabilities and others get a lot out of participating in sports as well, and so that is something that she is working on in the long term too.

JAC: Recovery is really important to her. How does she balance the hard work she has to do to achieve these big physical goals with getting rest and recovery?

CK: Yes she made a point of talking about recovery and rest and how essential it is to have that balance as a high level athlete. She builds in a couple of weeks of rest  after every season. She makes sure that after a competition she gets enough rest. And really every day she has to balance the work that she needs to do with the recovery that her body needs. And she notes that that equation has kind of changed as time has passed too, that the older you get the more you remember the harder work outs you did when you were younger and you think you have to do those you get the same results. But that equation just changes your body changes your physiology changes. And she's really conscious about maintaining the right balance as she continues into the later stages of her career.

KG: When you were training for any big goal but you know especially something like the 2020 Olympics that seems so massive and so high up on the mountain top that taking the first step could be really daunting or you wouldn't even know where to start. So how does Allyson Felix balance those huge goals with smaller more tangible ways to break it up?

CK: Yes she definitely breaks everything down year by year month by month day by day workout by workout she's focused on what she has to do that day. When she gets out of bed in the morning she thinks about that and I'm sure she keeps her sights set on those big huge goals too. But she really also makes sure that she has a clear focus on the steps along the way to get there and those process goals I think can be really served her well obviously in the long run.

JAC: And here is Cindy with Allyson.

CK: Well Allyson thank you so so much for joining me today. Now you Allyson Felix have 25 medals in total, nine Olympic medals six of them gold 16 World Championship medals 11 of them gold. If I got any of that wrong feel free to correct me, I think I counted right.

AF: It’s all good.

CK: On #WeGotGoals we typically ask people about a major goal they've achieved and how they got there. But those kinds of goals are just so so out of this world. I mean how do you even approach massive goals like those and how do you do it in a way that’s helped you sustain a successful career for so long?

AF: Well, I think that for me it's really helpful to break a goal down. Because even for myself you know when I think about the things that I want to accomplish I’ve always been someone who set my goals really high. But I think at times you know, you can set a goal and it can just seem a bit overwhelming. And so that, I have noticed that in my career and so I've always tried to kind of work backwards and think about you know how am I going to accomplish this? What does that look like? How can I break that goal down into what I need to do each month or each week all the way down to something, a week, or even setting a daily goal. And so that's always helps big goals to seem more manageable and just more of a reality. So that's something that I’ve done over the years to help me get through. So whether that look like getting through a workout in certain times for a specific day or even to the sense of,  I want to do something that takes me out of my comfort zone. I want to try a different event, something that I'm not as comfortable with. Those are all smaller goals that help me reach some of the bigger ones that can feel just a little harder to achieve.

CK: Oh, that makes so much sense and I feel like a lot of times when I’ve talk to accomplished athletes I feel like they do, they have process goals like that that take them to those bigger goals. When you think back over all that I mean can you pinpoint one accomplishment that’s been the most meaningful to you? Or do they all have their own special meaning?

AF: I think they definitely all have different meanings, different parts of the journey and different times in life but one that immediately comes to my mind is within my first individual gold medal at the Olympics. And that happened for me in 2012. But before that it was actually at my third Olympics. I had been to two games prior and had gotten silver medals to the same person and so to me, accomplishing that goal really just meant a lot because it was eight years being dedicated and sacrificing and having doubts, you know, is this ever going to come together? So being able to accomplish that goal represented so much for myself and also all the people who supported me, you know. All the people who were on my team and who helped me to get to that moment. It's just, it was such a group effort as well. So that's one that sticks out in my mind as being a huge accomplishment.

CK: You mentioned the support of your team and also some of the challenges that you faced. Right. I know you've you've had injuries you've had defeats, but obviously those haven't stood in the way of your incredible success. How do you overcome those to stay confident in your abilities and focused on the bigger picture? I’m guessing your support system plays a role in that, but what else would you say about how you overcome obstacles in that way?

AF: Yeah for sure. I mean I think there's no easy way around it. Sometimes you’re just in a tough situation and it's just difficult and it just can take some time. I think taking a break always helps, refreshing my mind. After each season I try to take a good six weeks away from the track, and so when I've dealt with—whether it's not achieving goals, dealing with disappointment and failure—I’ve always tried to just take a lesson away from it. You know, learn something, give my mind a break, give my body a break, so that I can come back to it refreshed. And that’s always helped when I've had you know whether it's a devastating injury or a devastating loss, you know sometimes you just need time to process that. I don’t think I ever really get over those moments, but they’re always fuel. They’ve taught me so much.  I can look back on some of the worst losses that I've had and the biggest moments of my career. And I can be thankful for them because through them I have learned the most about myself, about character and integrity and doing things the right way, that I feel like in the end have allowed me to see success later on.

CK: So it's almost like they weren't necessarily setbacks but maybe sort of like essential fact in their eventual journey forward.

AF: For sure. You know it's hard to realize that in the moment you know, I think that’s for anyone in the midst of you know the trenches of going through something. It's hard to have the vision to be able to see past that. But I think you know a lot of times it can be necessary.

CK: Well, I know your trip right now is on behalf of Play Unified and Special Olympics, which create opportunities for individuals with intellectual disabilities and that you've also done some work in the Middle East with Right to Play which helps children facing adversity. So I wondered if you could tell me a little bit about why it's important to you to help other athletes especially those who are facing some significant obstacles in their way to achieve their goals?

AF: Yeah to me, it’s—I really love to do things I’m passionate about and sport has really just changed my life, it’s given me so many opportunities. And so for me it's a privilege to get involved with some of these different organizations that are close to my heart. And as you mentioned Special Olympics is one of them and it’s the reason that I'm here and I'm really excited that Abu Dhabi is going to be the host in 2019 of these World Games. And I think the biggest reason is just the lasting legacy that I feel it will have on this part of the world. I think it's just such a movement and we're talking about really changing perception of people with intellectual disabilities and giving them and their families a sense of pride. I think a lot of times these individuals are in a sense hidden here. And these games are really changing that and allowing just greater inclusion. And so it's a cause that is really close to my heart and I'm just excited that I think that this will have a huge impact on the world.

CK: Well that's a huge goal. And I mean it must be really rewarding to work with people who are sort of reaching their individual goals and in pursuit of that really big goal. Do you kind of see that—you see like that individual involvement in sports helping these people achieve other goals in their lives too and then having that bigger impact?

AF: For sure. To me, it's like, it's really, I love what I do. I love to be able to compete and you konw know something I'm passionate about. But to me, this kind of work is just so meaningful. It truly changes lives. And so to be able to be a part of that, and as you mentioned see people reach their individual goals—it’s a different type of rewarding. And you know we were able to see it up close and the impact not only on one individual but their family and in a sense a whole culture of people is very very special.

CK: Now there is a small element of competition for you here too, right? Or a challenge, at least from Kobe Bryant? Is that is that how some of this came about?

AF: Yes this specific trip—yes it did. I had been involved with Special Olympics before. But yes he did challenge me to specifically coach some Special Olympic athletes in my expertise area of sprinting so we were able to make that happen yesterday. We held a clinic and got to do some really cool work so have to accept the challenge.

CK: In your athletic career—I know 2018 isn't on championship year and your next major event then might be the World Championship in 2019 right.

AF: Yes correct.

CK: That's a goal that's a little bit farther away. So how will you be motivated and focused to work toward it?

AF: Yeah can be it can be challenging because you know sometimes those goals that are further away it's harder to be in touch with them. It feels like you have time, and it can be a little more challenging. So for me you know again going back to breaking those goals down and that each year, each season is really a stepping stone to the ultimate goals. Like you said the 2019 World Championships or even the 2020 Olympic Games. So I really do look at it as that. I look at it as an opportunity for me to work on some of the smaller things, some technical things as well to give my body a little break of just the intensity of year after year of the championships. Especially now, I’m getting older and being in the 15th season of my career. It's an opportunity to get training and compete smarter and focus on quality over quantity has been another goal that as an athlete can be challenging but that this year is helpful to do that.

CK: Yeah, that was another question I had for you too, whether that sort of equation of balancing hard work and rest has changed a little bit and your career has progressed and it sounds like it has and you're always fine-tuning that.

AF: It is. It's probably one of the hardest things, though, as an athlete. And I think you know just competitive people in general. You know you have this idea of you know, the more work you do, the harder the work is, the more progress you’ll see. And you know as time goes on you learn that that's not always the case. You have to definitely get wiser with the work that you do, and get creative. Recovery is important. And there’s all these other aspects.  It can be challenging because you know it's not the way you traditionally think but it is very beneficial getting that part of the game right.

CK: So you mentioned Tokyo 2020, and we certainly hope we’ll see you there! Besides this sort of balance that we've talked about you know what do you think will be the most important—how are you aiming to achieve that big goal and what do you think will be most important in getting you there?

AF: Yeah I mean it's definitely a big one. I mean, it would be my fifth Olympic team. So for me it would be a drea come true. But there’s definitely challenges in the the way. I think the biggest thing is staying healthy, taking care of my body and just making sure all those things are in line. And just staying you know as competitive as I can, you know, training wise and so I think it’ll be kind of a combination of all those things. But I'm really excited. I love to challenge myself, I love to do something you know that doesn't come easy and so I'm looking forward to the whole process and journey.

CK: And then I'm curious to you know even if that happens then they'll still be a time in the next phase for you right, a career beyond sport, or in sport in a different way. Do you have in mind goals right now for that future or is that something that you will think about more when you when you're when you're getting there?

AF: Yeah definitely been thinking about it of course and just really wanting to do things I'm passionate about and so you to kind of do more of the work that I've been doing with organizations like Special Olympics, like Right to Play. I have a passion for children and so I want to definitely work with kids in some capacity and so yeah, right now kind of get together what that will specifically look like. But definitely it's on my mind and thinking about you know the transition to the next journey, during the next phase of my career.

CK: Allyson, I can't thank you enough for talking with me today. Really appreciate it and I know we're about out of time. Before I let you go how can people follow your training and all of your important work with organizations like the Special Olympics?

AF: Oh sure! Well, it’s been great to talk to you. You can definitely follow me on social media. On Twitter I'm just allysonfelix and on Instagram I’m af85. And so yeah I'll definitely be keeping everyone posted with all the things that I'm up to.

CK: Excellent, wonderful—well, we look forward to keeping up with you, not that we could really keep up with you. But following along. Thank you so much.

AF: Thank you, take care.

CK: This podcast was produced by me, Cindy Kuzma, and it’s another thing that's better with friends. So please, share it with yours. You can subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and while you're at it please leave us a rating or review. Special thanks to J. Mano for the music; to our guest this week, Allyson Felix; and to Tech Nexus for the recording studio and technical support.