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Olympic track star Allyson Felix <\/a>is headed to Paris this week\u2014but not to compete on the track as she did for the last two decades. Felix, the most decorated Olympian in track and field with 11 medals, will instead be traveling with her family of four to launch the Olympic Village\u2019s inaugural nursery to support parent athletes in partnership with Pampers.<\/p>\n \u201cThe systems aren\u2019t in place for mothers whatsoever,\u201d Felix, who retired from competing professionally in 2022, tells Fortune<\/em>. \u201cI\u2019m just trying to use my voice and speak up for some of these pretty basic things and try to see what we can implement.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The space at the village will give caregivers a private area away from the chaos of the day\u2019s events to breastfeed or engage with their child in a quieter location.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know why it has taken so long,\u201d Felix tells Fortune<\/em>, who sits on the International Olympic Committee\u2019s Athletes Commission. \u201cI would imagine it has something to do with not many women at the table and in positions of power sharing their experience.\u201d<\/p>\n At a talk on behalf of The Lactation Network at Peoplehood<\/a> Tuesday, Felix shared that while the nursery is in its beginning stages, she envisions an evolving space so athletes and their families don\u2019t have to care for kids in isolation or silence and where the athletic community can \u201cnormalize childcare at sporting events.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want any other woman to feel like she has to choose between her profession and motherhood, and definitely not to have to hide bringing a new life into this world,\u201d Felix said at the event, recalling how she would train at 4 a.m. so people wouldn\u2019t know she was pregnant with her now five-year-old daughter.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like I wouldn\u2019t have been able to come back. No one sat me down and told me that, but it\u2019s what I felt,\u201d she says. \u201cThe mothers I saw were struggling. They were having a really difficult time. They were losing sponsorships, and it wasn\u2019t an easy road.\u201d<\/p>\n Felix has been an outspoken advocate for maternal health<\/a> since her own traumatic birthing experience. Her daughter was born two months early and spent a month in the NICU after Felix developed a severe case of preeclampsia. As maternal mortality in the U.S.\u00a0 disproportionately affects Black mothers<\/a>, Felix has been investing in ways to improve outcomes and give women and moms equitable care<\/a>. She has testified to the United States Congress about Black maternal mortality and spoken on the subject publically across the globe.\u00a0<\/p>\n Felix\u2019s Olympics<\/a> nursery comes on the heels of an announcement from Melinda Gates<\/a>, who gave Felix\u2014among 12 people investing in gender and racial equity globally\u2014a $20 million grant. \u201cI\u2019m really focusing on Black maternal health<\/a> and also in the community,\u201d she says. \u201cI really wanted to impact people directly who are most at risk for complications or even deaths due to pregnancy.\u201d Felix adds that she intends to use Gates\u2019 investment to support smaller organizations working toward improving Black maternal health outcomes.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n