By Dericka Patrick // People // Motherhood

Feeling fearful? Incapable? Like you can’t do it? 36-year-old Christian athlete Allyson Felix is telling moms to go for it—whatever it is for you—anyway.

Though the Christian Olympic champion sprinter is enjoying retired life, she isn’t giving up on her calling to empower moms on and off the track.

The most decorated sprinter in U.S. history, also a wife and mother, chatted with Romper and said, “You don’t have to choose between motherhood and anything else.”

That doesn’t mean, however, that motherhood takes a backseat to anything else.

The five-time Olympian said her daughter, Camryn, 3, is “priority No. 1.”

That was never more obvious than when Felix ran into pregnancy complications—a life-threatening battle with preeclampsia that led to an emergency C-section at 32 weeks. She dedicated herself to her new daughter who spent a month in the NICU.

But that’s not all she did.

While going through this tough phase that left both her and her daughter, Cammy, fighting for survival in a hospital room, the new mom’s sponsor, Nike, tried to cut 70% of her pay in a new contract and put pressure on her to return to competing.

Instead of sitting back and passively allowing this to happen, her brother told her: Use your voice, even if it shakes.

“It resonated with me because I had so much fear, and I had never been that person that was comfortable speaking out,” Felix said. “I was always a private person, so when I thought about sharing what was happening with me, it just seems so far outside of who I was.”

But her brother made her feel like, “I can do this, even if I’m scared. I can still move forward.”

The athlete and advocate’s courage has inspired other women to be bold and put themselves out there despite feeling fearful sometimes.

“I realized on the other side of that fear is this incredible freedom,” Felix said. “I can have an opinion on things. I can stand up for people whose voice may not be as loud.”

 Saysh, a footwear company she launched, is also one of Felix’s ways of advocating for mothers. If you buy the brand’s shoes and during pregnancy your foot changes size, it’ll send you a new, free pair.

“To be able to say, ‘You don’t have to choose between motherhood and anything else’ is a small thing that you can do for women and to be able to show up for them in that way,” she told  Romper.

Though Felix has hung up her own running shoes, she’s still in the race for women’s rights, though it was not originally the path she saw for herself.

“It doesn’t have to be this perfect scenario to be able to have a loud voice. You can be scared just like me and move forward,” she said. “You can also start small; you don’t have to yell from the rooftops. Sometimes we feel, ‘I have to shake everything up to make change or have impact,’ and I don’t think that that’s always necessary.”

Proving what mothers can do, demonstrated by her amazing running abilities, will forever be a part of Felix’s legacy.

“Being out there was saying that mothers can have amazing performances across the board, whatever industry you’re in,” she said. “No one can put limits on you.”