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It doesn’t matter what you do for a living. Welcoming a child and then getting back to work is one of the most complicated things for a mother to adjust to. It’s especially complex if you’re an athlete.

Constant travel for competitions and games and the consistent training required, there are so many aspects of being a sportswoman that can take you away from home and away from your children. But many athletes are making it work, including at this year’s summer Olympics in Paris. With the addition of support like a nursery in Olympic Village for athlete mothers, quite a few Olympians brought their children along for the unforgettable experience.

Whether they’ve become champions after delivering a child or grapple with the emotions of having to leave their kids back home to play for their country, these moms are superheroes. And whether they take home gold or not, they’re winners for what they’re accomplishing and the inspiration they are to their children and mothers everywhere.

Dearica Hamby

Hamby, a mother of two to daughter Amaya and son Legend, is representing USA in Paris. The WNBA All-Star earned a bronze medal playing 3×3 basketball. “Unfortunately, our society and work culture perpetuate ‘mom guilt’ as they go back to work, or making moms feel like they can’t both parent and provide,” Hamby told ESSENCE in 2023. “It’s a false choice, and I’m proud to show just how strong moms are and to support other mothers going back to work. Being a mom and doing what I love is really special.”

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce

In what has been a stellar career on the track, “The Pocket Rocket,” a mother to soon-to-be 6-year-old son Zyon, is competing in her last Olympics. She knows she has more in her, but the 37-year-old said she plans to hang up her spikes for her family. “My son needs me,” she told ESSENCE in our January/February 2024 issue. “My husband and I have been together since before I won in 2008. He has sacrificed for me. We’re a partnership, a team. And it’s because of that support that I’m able to do the things that I have been doing for all these years. And I think I now owe it to them to do something else.”

Clarisse Agbegnenou

The French judoka, who took home a bronze in the individual competition and gold with the French mixed team, is a mother to daughter Athéna, who would come with her to train in preparation for the Olympic Games in her home city. “I want women athletes who follow me to feel free and legitimate, to break codes to change mentalities and change the rules,” she told Le Parisien. “We can have a life as a woman and mother as well as champion at the same time.”

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Luis Robayo/AFP/Getty Images; Richard Heathcote/Getty Images Sport; Brad Smith/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images Sport

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