Moms across sports are becoming more and more commonplace. A look at 15 moms who could be medal winners and news makers at the Toyko Olympics in 2021 ahead of “On Her Turf: Inspiring Greatness” on NBCSN on Sunday at 8 p.m. ET …
Nia Ali
Track and Field
Ali, who earned Rio Olympic 100m hurdles silver a year after having son Titus, won her first world title in 2019, a year after having daughter Yuri. At worlds, she lowered her personal best in the semifinals (12.44) and final (12.34) for the upset victory.
Oksana Chusovitina
Gymnastics
Chusovitina’s son, Alisher, will be older than many of Chusovitina’s competitors at the Tokyo Games. He is 20. She is 44, set to break her own record with an eighth Olympic gymnastics appearance. Chusovitina, already the oldest female gymnast in Olympic history from her Rio participation, will next year become the oldest Olympic gymnast in 112 years. She has competed for the Soviet Union, Unified Team, Germany and (currently) Uzbekistan.
Chloe Esposito
Modern Pentathlon
The Australian gold medalist from Rio was due to miss Tokyo, as she’s expecting her first child in August. Now that the Games are postponed until 2021, she has a chance to return to defend her title. Esposito took a year off after Rio and returned to win the 2018 World Cup Final, taking the world No. 1 ranking that year. She missed 2019 competition after a hamstring operation.
Allyson Felix
Track and Field
Felix, the most decorated female U.S. Olympic track and field athlete with nine medals, looks to cap her Olympic career in Tokyo. She came back from life-threatening Nov. 28, 2018 childbirth — daughter Camryn — to make her ninth world championships team last year and break a record for career world titles that she shared with Usain Bolt.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce
Track and Field
Fraser-Pryce, who is essentially Usain Bolt without the world records in the 100m, last year became the the oldest woman to win an Olympic or world title in the event at age 32. The Jamaican Pocket Rocket did so two years after having her first child, Zyon, going 20 months between meets. She had a statement 2019, running in the 10.7s a total of four times, becoming the fastest mom in history.
Sally Kipyego
Track and Field
Kipyego made her first U.S. Olympic team by placing third at the marathon trials on Feb. 29. She has Olympic experience, taking 10,000m silver for native Kenya in 2012. She gave birth to daughter Emma in summer 2017 and became eligible to represent the U.S. last August. Kipyego considered quitting while needing more than one year to return to form after childbirth. “A lot of women have children, they come back and they run and they’re fantastic,” she said. “That was not my story.”
Faith Kipyegon
Track and Field
The Rio Olympic 1500m champion from Kenya had daughter Alyn in 2018, taking nearly 22 months off competition. She returned last year, breaking her national record to take silver at the world championships. She also changed coaches to Patrick Sang, best known for guiding marathon world-record holder Eliud Kipchoge.
Alex Morgan
Soccer
The star forward was among the biggest beneficiaries of the Olympic postponement. Morgan is due with her first child later this spring. She had intended on trying to make the 18-player Olympic roster for this summer, a monumental goal given the U.S. scoring depth. Now she gets a full year to regain fitness and impress new coach Vlatko Andonovski. Joy Fawcett, Christie Rampone, Carla Overbeck and Kate Markgraf previously made U.S. Olympic soccer teams as moms.
MORE: Felix, Morgan, Williams featured on NBCSN’s “On Her Turf: Inspiring Greatness” on Sunday
Aliya Mustafina
Gymnastics
Mustafina is a two-time reigning Olympic uneven bars champion and the most decorated active gymnast aside from Simone Biles. She had daughter Alina in 2017 and competed at the following year’s worlds but missed Europeans and worlds in 2019, putting her Olympic prospects in question.
Cat Osterman
Softball
Osterman, a stepmom to daughter Bracken, was named to the original 2020 U.S. Olympic softball roster on Oct. 6, 2019, and USA Softball confirmed Thursday it will keep that team for 2021. The pitcher came out of a 2015 retirement in a bid to return for softball’s first Olympic appearance since 2008. Osterman started the last Olympic softball game in Beijing in 2008, when the U.S. was stunned by Japan in the gold-medal game.
Svetlana Romashina
Artistic Swimming
One of the most dominant athletes of the last 15 years. Romashina is a five-time Olympic champion and record 21-time world champion in artistic swimming (formerly called synchronized swimming). She took a break after Rio, had daughter Alexandra in 2017 and won three more golds at 2019 Worlds. Romashina is the second-youngest Olympic artistic swimming champion and, if she prevails in Tokyo, is in line to become its oldest, according to Olympedia and the OlyMADMen.
Kerri Walsh Jennings
Beach Volleyball
Walsh Jennings has as many children as Olympic titles (three — Joey, Sundance and Scout) but would like to end her Olympic career with a sixth Olympic appearance and a fourth gold in Tokyo. She’s now partnered with Brooke Sweat. They were ranked second among U.S. teams in Olympic qualifying when sports were halted, with a maximum of two spots per nation per gender. Walsh Jennings, 41, was already bidding to break the Olympic beach volleyball age record before the pandemic postponed the Olympics by one year.
Isabell Werth
Equestrian
Germany’s Dressage Queen is the most decorated Olympic equestrian with 10 medals and six golds, her first coming at the 1992 Barcelona Games. Werth, now 50, had son Frederik in 2009. She owns the top two spots in the world rankings with two different horses.
Serena Williams
Tennis
The 23-time Grand Slam singles champion came back from the life-threatening 2017 birth of daughter Olympia to all but wrap up her fifth Olympic berth when sports were halted. Now, she and other tennis stars must wait to see how Olympic qualifying will be amended. She owns four Olympic medals (all gold), one shy of the modern-era tennis record held by older sister Venus.
Mariel Zagunis
Fencing
The most decorated U.S. fencer in history qualified for her fifth Olympics in March, and her first as a mom. She had daughter Sunday Noelle in October 2017. Zagunis, who owns four combined individual Olympic and world sabre titles, is, at 35, in line to become the oldest U.S. Olympic fencer since 1996.
MORE: Felix sees Tokyo Olympics as ‘time of healing’
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