“My stomach dropped,” Felix said to Time magazine in an interview published this week. The most decorated female track athlete in the country was engaged in tense negotiations with Nike, a company she thought aligned with her own core values, only to realize she and other female athletes were only profitable when choosing not to start a family. The sting of the insult was deep

“I was like, this is just beyond disrespectful and tone-deaf. That’s when I decided to speak out.” In May 2019, Felix wrote an op-ed for The New York Times detailing how Nike refused to amend contract terms. The terms would allow expectant and new moms to continue earning a living at their pre-pregnancy levels.

“I asked Nike to contractually guarantee that I wouldn’t be punished if I didn’t  perform at my best in the months surrounding childbirth…Nike declined,” she wrote.

The company would later compromise in August 2019 by agreeing to not enact performance pay reductions for a year following childbirth. The company says, in a statement to Time: “We regularly have conversations with out athletes regarding the many initiatives we run around the world. Nike has supported thousands of female athletes for decades. We have learned and grown in how to best support our female athletes.”

However, Nike’s 2019 compromise was too little, too late.

“Nike sometimes, they feel like you don’t have another option. So they can get away with stuff like that because, where are you going to go,” Felix said.

Felix has decided to leave the company that was sponsoring her for more than a decade. She has now joined the female-led Athleta becoming the company’s first sponsored athlete.