Olympic athletes talk balancing motherhood and sports at 2026 Winter Games
Several moms competing at the 2026 Winter Olympics are opening up about training as elite athletes and chasing medals while raising young children -- a dual commitment they said is well worth it to have their kids with them at the Games.
U.S. bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor, the most decorated Black Winter Olympian of all time, is competing in Milan while raising two children with disabilities, 5‑year‑old son Nico and 3‑year‑old son Noah.
In an interview with ABC News' Maggie Rulli, Taylor said returning to high‑level training after giving birth was a challenge.
"I never really felt like I made it back," she said, explaining that the aftermath of getting an epidural five years ago continues to affect her back. "I don't know if my body will ever be the same, but it's OK -- I can still do what I need to do."
She added, "I want my boys to know that my dreams and my hopes and opportunities weren't limited because of them."
Being elite athletes and competing on a global stage means coordinating things like pregnancies around the Olympic cycle.
U.S. curlers and sisters Tara and Tabitha Peterson described the complexities of handling postpartum recovery while also staying competition‑ready.
"I had the baby, [Tabitha] was still pregnant, but we needed to keep competing," Tara Peterson, whose son is now 17 months old, told ABC News.
Tabitha Peterson, whose daughter just started walking, said she returned to the sheet "about five weeks postpartum."
"And you know, the hormones are still flowing through your body," she said of the experience, adding, "You kind of just do what you've got to do."
U.S. women's hockey player Kendall Coyne Schofield, whose son Drew is 2 1/2 years old, said she wanted to continue competing after becoming a mom so that her son would one day understand why she kept playing.
"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."
The ultimate icing on the cake for each of the moms would be to one day place an Olympic medal around their child's neck, they said.
