Alexandria Wyckoff
Being a mom or an Olympic athlete isn’t easy, but these women manage to pull off the impossible.
There are several Olympic moms competing at the 2026 Winter Olympics this year, and they are sharing their stories.
From managing workouts, children’s activities, and even postpartum hormones, these women are balancing their Olympic dreams with motherhood perfectly.
Balancing Competition and Motherhood
Several Olympic moms shared their stories with ABC News‘ Maggie Rulli for a Good Morning America interview about juggling training and raising young children.
While it’s not easy by any stretch, each of them believes the hard work is worth it, so they can achieve Olympic dreams with their children cheering them on.
Elana Meyers Taylor
Elana Meyers Taylor is a United States bobsledder and the most decorated Black Winter Olympian of all time. She’s currently competing for gold while also raising two boys with disabilities: Noah (3) and Nico (5).
While her current life is a juggling act, the real pressure came from training after giving birth. She shared with Maggie Rulli that high-level training was extremely difficult.
“I never really felt like I made it back,” she said. An epidural years ago during one of the children’s births still continues to give her back pain. “I don’t know if my body will ever be the same, but it’s okay. I can still do what I need to do.”
Instead of succumbing to the pain, Taylor pushed through to get her body prepared for another Olympics. The more important part? Showing her sons that their births didn’t limit Taylor’s future.
“I want my boys to know that my dreams and my hopes and opportunities weren’t limited because of them.”
Kendall Coyne Schofield
While Kendall Coyne Schofield doesn’t have to deal with back pain like Taylor, there’s another reason why she decided to step back out on Olympic ice.
The United States women’s hockey player has a son, Drew, who is 2 1/2 years old. He is the main reason why Schofield is still on skates.
“I had a vision and a goal of him not getting older and looking back and seeing when my hockey career ended, and that being 2023, the same year he was born,” she said. “I want him to know that mommy kept going, and he was the reason I kept going.”
Schofield wanted to show her child that motherhood and Olympic dreams were possible at the same time, and for her son to be proud of her in the coming years.
Other Olympic Moms
Training, meal prep, and competing take a lot of time out of Olympians’ schedules, so to try to plan their pregnancy within all of that chaos? It takes precision, which these two mothers excel in both in and out of the Olympics.
Sisters and Olympic curlers Tara and Tabitha Peterson shared with ABC News how they overcame postpartum recovery while also preparing their sore bodies for the next Olympic cycle and being competition-ready.
“I had the baby, [Tabitha] was still pregnant, but we needed to keep competing,” Tara Peterson explained.
Her son is now 17 months old, while Tabitha’s daughter just started walking.
Tabitha shared that she returned to the curling ice “about five weeks postpartum.”
“And you know, the hormones are still flowing through your body,” she shared of the experience, adding, “You kind of just do what you’ve got to do.”
While all mothers are superhuman, these Olympic moms take it to another level, keeping their children happy and healthy while preparing for the world’s biggest stage. Hopefully, one or more of these Olympic moms can bring home a medal for their child to see and prize.