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From training and competing to preparing bottles for feedings and changing diapers, some of the Olympians at the Paris Games will be balancing their roles of athletes and parents.
There is the British rower who raised more than $4,000 through GoFundMe to go to Paris “as a full-time mom.” The American marathon runner who trained with his daughters’ support by the track. The New Zealand rowers who sang children's songs to motivate each other after rough nights waking up to take care of their babies.
There will be some help from organizers this time for athletes in Paris juggling the demands of elite sports with the tasks of parenthood.
The International Olympic Committee and Paris organizers set up what they call the first Olympic Village nursery to allow athletes to be closer to their children and have quality time with them during the Games.
“The IOC and IOC Athletes’ Commission want to ensure that pregnancy and motherhood do not mean a career end in particular for female athletes,” the IOC said. “The nursery forms part of an ongoing commitment from the IOC and IOC AC to ensure parent athletes are cared for and supported at the Games.”
Organizers said the space is intended “to reunite competing moms and dads with their children,” and that it will provide “more complimentary services and products to athletes than ever before at the Olympic and Paralympic Village” through one of the IOC’s partners that sells diapers.
The IOC, which aims to make the 2024 Olympics the first fully gender-equal Games, said it doesn’t compile data on how many parents will be competing in Paris, but said it “was seeing good interest in the nursery” ahead of the event.
Olympic Village nursery ‘a shift in culture’
The nursery is welcome news for parent athletes after restrictions at the Tokyo Olympics caused by the COVID-19 pandemic meant family members weren't allowed to accompany athletes. Canadian basketball player Kim Gaucher complained at the time that the IOC was making athletes choose between the Games and their children, and the IOC eventually allowed breastfeeding mothers to take their children to Japan with them.
Past Games included iconic celebrations by parents with their kids, including American Nia Ali with her young son after winning a silver medal in the 100 meters hurdles at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics.
American Allyson Felix, an 11-time Olympic medalist who often celebrated victories with her children, told CBS that the nursery represents a “shift in culture" and a move in ”the right direction.”
"I think it really tells women that you can choose motherhood and also be at the top of your game and not have to miss a beat,” said Felix, who is on the IOC's athletes’ commission.
Among the Olympians who may end up using the nursery in Paris are New Zealand rowers Brooke Francis and Lucy Spoors, who will be in the same boat in Paris, both literally — they are paired in the double sculls category — and because they both gave birth about two years before the Games.
Before training they often discussed how many times they had to wake up the night before to take care of their babies. And when they were too tired, they sang kids’ songs in the boat — those “stuck in our heads," Francis said — to try to cheer themselves up.
American marathon runner Clayton Young had his daughters help him train by yelling power phrases every time he went by through a grass loop section on his training route. When he clinched his spot at the Olympic trials earlier this year, they were among the first to hug and congratulate him at the finish line.
“Kids take a lot of physical effort and exertion,” Young told The Associated Press. “Maybe I’m not sleeping or eating or resting as well as some other professional athletes, but from a mental standpoint, I'm way more grounded and way more present and have a much bigger internal perspective than most athletes.”
Athletes seek support from family members and crowdfunding
British rower Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne turned to GoFundMe to take her young son and her partner to competitions as she tried to qualify for the Games.
“The funding I receive is enough to help me pay rent, buy food and support with child care,” she said. “However, with the current cost-of-living crisis, it wouldn’t be enough to fund Freddie and his dad (or grandparents) with travel, accommodation and food at training camps and competitions.”
Dutch table tennis player Britt Eerland also resorted to GoFundMe to raise money to make it to the Paris Games after giving birth in March 2023.
“This campaign aims to show the world that motherhood and elite sports can coexist. By supporting me, we’re championing the message that mothers can pursue their dreams and excel at the highest levels,” she said on her GoFundMe page. “With your help, I will not only make my dream come true to go to Paris in 2024 but also inspire countless mothers worldwide.”
Francis and Spoors will be counting on help from their parents and partners to take care of their kids during the Games. They will all stay at a rented apartment until Francis and Spoors join their teammates at the team hotel and leave the toddlers with their families.
“We’re so lucky that we have people that we feel comfortable enough with to have the kids staying with them and know that they’re safe and happy,” Spoors told the AP. “Basically it has been a lot of planning and there is an element of a lot of logistics to it.”
Spoors said motherhood brought extra physical challenges and made them “super conscious of injury and things like that.”
“But then obviously the other side of balancing just being a new mom and how to do that and learning what comes with all of that,” she said. “Basically we have two goals this year: to aim for a gold medal at the Olympics but also to be the best mom that we can be.”
Francis said they were “really lucky that we do get to be both moms and sort of have our dream job rowing as well.”
“You sort of just realize how much of a privilege it is to be able to represent your country and bring your kids along for the ride,” she said.
