Allyson Felix says recovery is harder as a mom than as an Olympic athlete—and she’s fighting to make it easier for all of us

Allyson Felix knows a thing or two about pushing through. The most decorated U.S. track and field Olympian in history built her legendary career on discipline, recovery, and knowing exactly when to rest. But when she became a mom? Everything she thought she knew about recovery got a serious reality check.

“Recovering as a mom is hands down harder than recovering as an athlete,” Felix tells Motherly. “You’re just running on E sometimes, and there’s always going to be these little people who are still showing up needing things.”

It’s the kind of admission that makes you want to simultaneously laugh, cry, and send this article to everyone who has ever said “but what do you do all day?” to a parent. If an eleven-time Olympic medalist says motherhood is the harder gig, the rest of us can officially stop pretending we’re fine.

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The myth of “no days off”

Felix has been thinking a lot lately about our cultural obsession with grinding through illness—and how dangerous that mindset is, especially for caregivers. She’s partnered with Theraflu on their Right to Rest & Recover initiative to advocate for paid sick leave, a cause that hit close to home once she understood the scope of the problem.

“In today’s work culture, we glorify pushing through,” she says. “Even that saying of ‘no days off’—we wear it like a badge of honor. And it couldn’t be further from what’s actually truthful. Recovery and rest is so important.”

Her coach always told her that rest days are just as important as the heavy training days. “If you can’t recover your body, you’re going to be no good if you’re injured, if you can’t compete,” Felix says. “And it’s the exact same thing in so many different parts of life. Especially as caregivers—if we can’t be healthy ourselves, how can we take care of someone else?”

The numbers behind the guilt

If Felix’s words resonate, it’s because the data backs up what so many parents already feel in their bones. A new study from Theraflu and Wakefield Research surveyed more than 1,000 working caregivers in the U.S. and the findings are sobering: 80 percent say they can’t afford to take a sick day, even when they need one. More than half cite needing the income, while 28 percent worry that taking sick time could put their job at risk.

And the pressure doesn’t stop at the office door. A staggering 97 percent of respondents feel pressure to keep up with their daily routines when they’re sick, and 87 percent feel they have no choice but to maintain family and household responsibilities while ill. Working moms, in particular, are more likely than working dads to power through their daily routines when sick—while dads are more likely to ask for help. (File that under: things that surprise absolutely no one.)

For the sandwich generation—those caring for both children and aging parents—the burden is even heavier. More than 75 percent say their caregiving responsibilities feel overwhelming when they’re healthy and become unbearable when they’re sick.

“I wasn’t fully aware of all of the issues around paid sick leave,” Felix says. “It really stuck out to me, especially around caregivers and parents and mothers—this double burden. If you don’t have paid sick leave, what that really means is having to try to push through, especially when you are taking care of children at home.”

Related Dr. Becky unpacks the real reason why it’s so triggering when we have to pick up our sick kid from school

What she wants her daughter to see

As a mom to both a son and a daughter, Felix is intentional about modeling what it looks like to actually take care of yourself—not just talk about it.

“I found myself in that place so many times,” she says. “You feel like you just have to show up. You’re so many things to so many people that you really don’t feel like you have the option. But I do want my daughter to see that our health is important and that it is important to rest when you need it.”

Her example is refreshingly practical. “Sometimes when work is overwhelming or there’s just a lot happening, I will tell my husband, ‘I need a nap.’ In the middle of all the things, I’m going to go get 30 minutes. And I let my daughter see that,” Felix says. “I think it’s important to say, ‘I need to take a break’ and show what that actually looks like in the midst of the chaos.”

In an era of Instagram-worthy productivity and hustle culture, watching an Olympic gold medalist normalize the mid-day nap feels borderline revolutionary.

From awareness to action

What drew Felix to Theraflu’s initiative specifically is that it isn’t just about raising awareness—it’s about taking tangible action right now.

“I love that Theraflu was taking action and not waiting for policy to catch up, but saying, ‘We’re stepping in and offering these micro grants for people who need them,’” she says.

Since 2021, Theraflu’s Right to Rest & Recover Fund has distributed more than $1 million in microgrants to families and individuals to help cover expenses from unpaid sick time. Now in its fifth year, the fund offers $200 microgrants to qualifying applicants. Parents can apply at Theraflu.com/rightorecover.

For the first time this year, a portion of each Theraflu purchase made between January and March and again from October to December 2026 will be donated to A Better Balance, a nonprofit that champions paid sick time policies across the U.S., with Theraflu committing up to $250,000 in donations.

While 89 percent of working caregivers believe paid sick time should be a right and not a privilege, policy hasn’t caught up with that consensus. Nearly 25 million Americans still don’t have access to paid sick time. Meanwhile, 59 percent of respondents say their employer doesn’t even encourage taking time off to rest and recover when sick.

A word for the parent reading this while sick

When asked what she’d say to a parent who’s reading this from the couch, surrounded by tissues, feeling guilty about everything they’re not doing, Felix doesn’t offer a pep talk or a productivity hack. She offers something better.

“My first thing would be: give yourself grace,” she says. “You have to be kind with the way that you talk to yourself and that you move through these spaces. We can’t do it all, all the time.”

Coming from someone who literally won Olympic gold while navigating the impossible standards placed on mothers in the workplace, those words land a little differently. Maybe we can all take the nap.

source https://www.mother.ly/health-wellness/allyson-felix-paid-sick-leave/