Talitha Diggs is aiming to carve her own path from her family’s Olympics prestige by emulating the legendary Allyson Felix.
Talitha Diggs comes from a family where the Olympics are more of a tradition than a distant dream.
With a lineage brimming with Olympians—her mother Joetta Clark Diggs, her aunts Jearl Miles Clark and Hazel Clark, there was certainly a legacy to live up to.
But rather than feeling constrained by her family’s success, Diggs has taken her own approach, forging a path that honors their achievements while allowing her to make her own mark in the world of track and field.
In a candid conversation on the Ready Set Go podcast hosted by former 100m world champion Justin Gatlin and co-host Rodney Green, Diggs opened up about the early pressures and her eventual decision to pursue track and field.
She recalled feeling a sense of obligation to follow the family’s footsteps but initially resisted, exploring other sports first.
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“I did every sport except track and field for the longest time. I mean, literally everything you could imagine, figure skating, soccer….I think I just wanted to find my own way into the sport.”
Her breakthrough moment came in eighth grade when, without any formal training, she ran a national-level event and placed fifth. That unexpected success was enough to spark her interest in the sport.
“I thought, ‘Okay, maybe I’m pretty fast. Let me see what happens if I actually train for this,'” she said. From that point on, Diggs began taking track seriously, committing herself to training and refining her skills.
But despite her growing passion, the pressure to meet the high expectations set by her family loomed large.
“My mom’s a four-time Olympian, my aunt’s a five-time Olympian, my other aunt’s a three-time Olympian, and my uncle has been an Olympic coach. Like, you don’t hear ‘track and field’ without thinking of the Clark family,” she admitted.
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However, as her journey progressed, Diggs realized the importance of establishing her own identity in the sport. “I knew it was going to be a lot to live up to. But as I got into the sport, I realized it wasn’t about living up to their legacy. It was about carving my own path.”
The former world champion with the U.S.A relay team in 2022 is motivated not just by her family’s success but by a desire to be versatile, much like one of her idols, American track legend Allyson Felix.
“I really want to be and I feel like I am elite in every single event,” she explained, echoing Felix’s remarkable versatility.
“I want to keep that, you know, Allison Felix level of versatility, where it’s like, no matter the event, she’s competing at the highest level. That’s my goal, too.”
One event that has particularly caught Diggs’ eye is the 100m, a race known for its technical difficulty and explosive nature.
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Reflecting on her admiration for the event, she explained, “I really do love the 100. It’s obviously super technical. Growing up, I remember watching you (Gatlin) and other OGs—people who really nailed executing the race plan and thinking, ‘Wow, this is such a tough event.’ Like, it’s short, but it’s so technical, and I’ve always admired that.”
Despite her interest in the 100m, Diggs is careful not to rush into the change. “I definitely want to keep running some 100s and all that, but I don’t know if I’d go as far as saying I’m going to be a 100-meter runner. That’s a big shift. There is a lot of technical work involved, and it would take some serious time,” she explained.
The transition from her main event, the 400m, would require a drastic change in training, and she acknowledges that it’s a different kind of challenge altogether. “It’s like a whole different game compared to the 400.”
However, Diggs isn’t ruling out the possibility of running a solid 100m time that could benefit her versatility across events.
“I do want to be able to drop down and run a good time, you know? Something that helps me in my other events and shows I can compete at an elite level across the board,” she added.
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As the trend in modern sprinting shifts toward well-rounded athletes who excel in multiple distances, Diggs is on the right track.
“There’s definitely a trend now. A lot of folks like Shericka (Jackson), Fred (Kerley), (Letsile) Tebogo—a lot of these people are well-rounded sprinters. And when we say well-rounded, we’re talking about the 100, 200, and 400. They can do it all,” Green said, encouraging Diggs to continue embracing her potential. “You’d be in great company if you could pull that off.”
In her pursuit of greatness, Diggs is continuing to evolve, drawing inspiration from both her family legacy and track legends like Allyson Felix.
