Allyson Felix and Athleta team up to cover childcare costs for athlete moms
Allyson Felix is the most decorated athlete in the world and she's on the brink of striking more gold at this year's Olympics.
In addition to being the all-star athlete that she is, she's also a devoted mom who's passionate about empowering other fellow women athletes.
Aligning with that passion, Felix has teamed up with apparel company Athleta and the Women's Sports Foundation (WSF) to launch The Power of She Fund: Child Care Grants.
This new $200,000 grant program has made a commitment to cover childcare costs for professional mom-athletes traveling to competitions.
"This is going to make a huge difference in their lives," Felix told "Good Morning America." "Childcare is one of the huge barriers that we have to overcome."
She continued, "I really do hope also that this spurs an industry-wide change, and we look to support women holistically."
The first group of recipients, including six that are also headed to the Tokyo Olympics, will receive $10,000 each.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the families of Olympic athletes won't be able to travel to Tokyo. Only nursing children will be allowed to join their moms for the upcoming games.
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The Power of She Fund: Child Care Grants is aiming to help provide resources to empower mom-athletes to compete without limitations.
While this won't be Felix's first time at the Olympics, it will be her first time competing as a mom to her 2-year-old daughter Camryn.
Similar to many other working moms during the pandemic, Felix says training during this time resulted in "a lot of chaos."
"I was doing a lot of my training, literally, around my house so I was running in the streets in front of my home and I was in the gym and in our garage and you know my daughter is looking down from above," she added.
Felix later shared that without her support sytem she wouldn't be able to gear up for what will be her fifth and final olympics.
One of this year's The Power of She Fund: Child Care grant recipients, sitting volleyball player Lora Webster, who is mother of three -- ages 10, 8 and 5 -- shared in a statement that she doesn't have family nearby to help with child care. She said a lot of her training happens at home with her kids.
"There have been many instances where we simply can't justify the cost of a babysitter on top of the cost of the gym and training site, so my training falls by the wayside," she said.
Webster added, "This money has given us such a big breath of relief in the past few weeks."
