Maternity care for Black women needs to be radically improved so that other pregnant women do not end up dying like 2016 Olympic relay champion Tori Bowie, Allyson Felix, track and field's most decorated woman, said Thursday.
Bowie, a former 100-meter world champion who won gold in the 4x100 relay at the Rio Games alongside Felix, died at age 32 while approximately eight months pregnant and experiencing labor, according to an autopsy report obtained by U.S. media.
Felix herself experienced life-threatening complications during her pregnancy in 2018, while a third member of their 2016 Olympic relay team, Tianna Madison, wrote on social media this week that she nearly died during childbirth.
"Three gold medalists from that 4x100 relay team in Rio set out to become mothers. All three of us — all Black women — had serious complications," Felix, who collected seven Olympic gold medals during her career, wrote in Time magazine.
"We’re dealing with a Black Maternal Health crisis. Here you have three Olympic champions, and we're still at risk."
Felix pointed to data from the Centers for Disease Control showing the maternal mortality rate for Black women in the United States was 2.6 times higher than the rate for white women and said she had reservations about trying to have another child.
"This is America, in 2023, and Black women are dying while giving birth. It’s absurd," she said. "I’m hopeful that Tori, who stood on the podium at Rio, gold around her neck and sweetness in her soul, won’t die in vain."