Why Elite Female Athletes Are Turning Away From Major Sponsors

Smaller brands are working with athletes in different ways, like giving them equity or roles in developing products, and are paying more attention to their personal stories.

Athleta, the activewear brand for women and girls owned by Gap Inc., had never sponsored an athlete when it approached the six-time Olympic champion sprinter Allyson Felix in 2019, shortly after she took Nike to task for its pay practices for pregnant runners. The smaller company was interested in supporting Ms. Felix’s career, and said it would not penalize her for losing races or choosing to have more children. (Nike changed its policy for pregnant athletes after the criticism by Ms. Felix, whose contract with the company ended in 2017.) She said that she liked that Athleta was led by women and that it appreciated that she was a mother as well as an athlete. “It’s a very pressured situation to be sponsored traditionally in track and field — it’s about numbers if you don’t perform, reductions and all of these things,” Ms. Felix, who will compete in the Tokyo Games, said in an interview. With Athleta, she added, “I felt like I had more value as a person, and that was something I hadn’t experienced before.”