cnn sports analyst christine brennan joins me now from tokyo. ut her athletic achievements into context. how amazing is what she did on the track? you run out of superlatives here. >> you do, kim, that is true. we've never seen anyone quite like her. as you said, the most-decorated american track and field star. there's a lot of competition for that title. she just passed carl lewis, one of the greats of all time. america is known for track and field stars. the united states has been a track and field nation for decades. allyson felix, age 35, in her last olympics, as a mother, now as an advocate for moms who are athletes, as someone who has talked about social injustice, racial injustice, really finding her voice. for her to also have these two final medals, bronze in the 400, then that majestic gold medal in the 4x400 as part of a relay that included some younger women who are coming up after her, it was just the perfect ending for an amazing career from one of the greatest of all time for the united states, allyson felix. >> all right. so you

so i spoke with christine brennan about felix's remarkable career. here she is. >> the united states has been a track and field nation for decades. and so for allyson felix at the age of 35 in her last olympics as a mother now as an advocate for moms who are athletes, as someone who has talked about social injustice, racial injustice, really finding her voice, for her to also have these two final medals, bronze in the 400 and then that majestic gold medal in the 4 x 400, it was an amazing ending for her career. >> and so delve into her off the field items. why is she such an icon to moms everywhere? >> as you know the u.s. women continue to dominate at these olympics. close to 60% of the u.s. medals, 58% of the medals won by the united states were won by women and increasingly these are veteran olympians, and they come back for games after games. and allyson felix is 35 years old. so these are women who have had careers because of title ix, a law that opened the floodgates for women and girls to play sports 50 years ago, they have had opportunities t

i spoke to christine brennan a short time ago. >> reporter: close to 60% of u.s.ere won by women. the women are professional olympians and come back for games after games and as i said allyson felix is 35 years old. title ix invited with women to play in their 20s and 30s. allyson had her daughter three years ago nike her sponsor, one of the biggest names in the nike stable, nik esays we're not going to pay you while pregnant on maternity leave. she fought that and won. nike and other big shoe companies, big names in the sports industry relented and said we need to respect the rights of mothers who continue to compete. a huge victory and we'll see the benefits of that continuing on in the olympic games, kim. >> that was cnn sports analyst christine brennan there. >>> simone biles to sit out a good portion of the olympic games she turned to a secret is imnaz yum to straighten out the disorienting condition called the twisties. >> reporter: this is the first time international television cameras inside the ogawa field since simone biles camer to to train in secret.

you told this to christine brennan of "usa today."just playing games with people's lives, it's totally avoidable. and america is sitting there rooting for the united states and then they have this clown show. i can't take it anymore, it's just unacceptable. it's not hard to do the relay. tell us why you're mad, carl lewis. [ laughter ] what went wrong? >>>> yeah. well, basically what's happened, there's been a failure of leadership. and i think that the thing about it, i was very passionate and i did my tweets in my discussion. so now it's around the world and i don't think we can make these same mistakes because it is true. we've got to take this seriously. you're representing someone else. i think we need a change of leadership of how we put these young people in position. and i think we need to hold the coaches and those people accountable. we immediately went to the athletes and went, well, let's go ask the coaches why it didn't happen. but on the women's side, title ix was one of the most important things to happen for sports, pe

former gold medal olympic gymnast dominique dawes and sports columnist christine brennan joining us.as much on the balance beam if she chose not to do her full dismount and did a double pike and was conservative, probably learned that when she was 8 or 9 so felt confident mr. that but i'm so proud of that young lady. she faced her fears and got out there and this won't be something that's looming over her that she didn't get back out there on the podium and compete. >> i know. you know, dominique, you know, you know the pressure. what does -- what does it mean when you have all the eyes on you, many eyes as simone did and to go back and compete as she did today? >> i mean, it's amazing. it takes me back to 25 years ago at the 1996 olympic games when i had a mental and emotional breakdown prior to walking out and competing for my team and then i ended my olympic run earning a bronze medal on the floor exercise after having fallen and embarrassing myself. you know, in the georgia dome in front of nearly 50,000 people in the all-around competition. it's hard to do it but yet it will be

christine brennan, wow, this is a big turnaround. we saw the video that simone biles put out of how difficult it was for her with the twisties, losing herself during these tumbles. she feels well enough to try the balance beam? >> reporter: that's right, john. this is a very big development in the continuing story, which is now a week old, of simone and what she has gone through, and the journey she has taken us on. and i don't think there's any doubt this will be the most pressure-packed minute in these olympic games and frankly one of the most nerve-racking pressure-packed moments of olympic games in memory. that's how big a deal this s when she's on that balance beam, four inches, any mere mortal, it's hard to stand on that thing. she'll be flipping and doing all the amazing things she does on it, wow, it will be the moment of these olympic games and i know many, many people will be, of course, cheering for her after all she's been through the last week. >> i think mostly cheering that she be well as much as anything else. medal o

joining us now from tokyo, sports analyst christine brennan and also a "usa today" sports columnist.id she look today? >> she did a great job. it was bronze medal performance, it was thought gold or silver, but it it doesn't matter. she got up back on to that beam, exactly a week since she left during the team competition. we've basically lived with her and all of the stops an starts all the way through the week as she talked about the mental health issues and everything that she's been dealing with. and she came back for this one final moment, this incredible punctuation mark, this exclamation point on her olympic games. and she was terrific. she got on the beam, she had one little stop. otherwise perfect. she was terrific. and that really is all that matters. the fact that there was a bronze medal at the end, she finished third behind two chinese gymnasts, obviously that is the sports story. but the human story here is about simone biles achieving so much more than even we thought she was going to do coming back one last time on the balance beam. >> you are so right, that comeback

christine brennan is joining us live from tokyo.is balance beam final? >> well, wolf, this is going to be a huge event and a huge moment at these olympic games by far and she feels comfortable in the air or more comfortable anyway, she believes that the twisties, getting lost in the air, she believes that she has conquered that, hopes that continues to be the case. the balance beam, though, wolf, it's 4 inches up there, several feet in the air. for mere mortals like you and i, i mean, it's almost impossible just to stand on it and she will be flipping and doing all these routines and turning around on and it there is great risk, but she thinks she's got it. she thinks she's ready and what a lovely punctuation mark for the end of the olympics and the world will probably be holding its breath. >> i'll be among them. i'll watch every second of that. one of the most unexpected story of the olympic games is how biles decision to step back opened up doors for her fellow usa gymnasts to bring home medal of their own. tell us about that. >>

christine brennan is covering these games for "usa today." and joins me now from tokyo. stine, welcome back to the newshour, always good to you have here, let's talk about the swimmer. the u.s. leads in the total metal count thanks in large part to those people, caleb dress el and katy ledecky, tell me about the significants of their performance. >> katie ledecky, i covered her for a long time and remember the 15 year old water bugs winning in london and the dominant swimmer in rio piling unall the gold medals. this performance five years later, and here in tokyo, i think is more impressive than any i've seen of hers, 24 years old now, the competitors are coming, young kids are coming on quick. she added the 1500 first time, the women were doing the 1500, the mile. she added that, so that added to her schedule. and she just plowed through this, two golds, two silvers. i think it was more impressive than what i had seen from her before in that in addition to of course winning two golds, handling the silver in the 400 meters,-- with class, grace, dignity, katy ledecky comes