The greatest champion moms in Olympic sports history

By OlympicTalkMay 8, 2020, 1:54 PM EDT

Seventeen moms who became Olympic gold medalists or champions in their sport’s pinnacle equivalent, ahead of “On Her Turf: Inspiring Greatness” on NBCSN on Sunday at 8 p.m. ET…

Lisa Andersen
United States
Surfing

Returned to competition two months after having daughter Erica in Aug. 1, 1993 at age 24. Then won her first world title in 1994, followed by the next three in a row, an unprecedented run for a female surfer.

Kristin Armstrong
United States
Cycling

The 2008 Olympic time trial champion first retired in 2009 to start a family. After son Lucas arrived in 2010, Armstrong came back to repeat as Olympic gold medalist. She retired again. Then she unretired again and three-peated in Rio, becoming at age 42 the oldest individual U.S. Olympic champion since 1968.

Natascha Badmann
Switzerland
Triathlon

The Swiss Miss won her first Ironman world championship in 1998, when she was 31 and her daughter was 13. Badmann won the 140.6-mile test in Kona five more times, putting her second on the all-time list behind Paula Newby-Fraser.

Marit Bjørgen
Norway
Cross-Country Skiing

The most decorated Winter Olympian with 15 medals, trailing only Summer Olympians Michael Phelps and Larisa Latynina. Bjoergen became a mom to son Marius in December 2015, then came back for her fifth Olympics in PyeongChang. She was arguably the most dominant athlete there, earning five medals, including two golds, at age 37. She won the last event of the Games, the 30km, by 109 seconds, the largest Olympic cross-country margin of victory in 38 years, in her final career race.

Fanny Blankers-Koen
Netherlands
Track and Field

“The Flying Housewife” won four gold medals at the 1948 London Olympics, when the mother of two also held the world records in the high jump and long jump, two events in which she didn’t compete at those Games. Named the female athlete of the century by track and field’s international governing body. Would have won more Olympic medals in 1940 or 1944 if not for World War II canceling those Games.

Kim Clijsters
Belgium
Tennis

Clijsters lifted one Grand Slam singles trophy before motherhood, then three after having daughter Jada. The Belgian was one of the most adored players on the WTA Tour as she won the U.S. Open in 2009 and 2010 and the Australian Open in 2011 before retiring in 2012.

Margaret Court
Australia
Tennis

Court won three Slams as a mom — the Australian Open, French Open and U.S. Open in 1973. The top seed at Wimbledon that year, Court’s bid for a calendar Grand Slam as a mom was derailed by an 18-year-old Chris Evert in a three-set semifinal.

Joy Fawcett
United States
Soccer

As a mom, played every minute of the 1995, 1999 and 2003 World Cups and the 1996 and 2000 Olympics. She retired as the most capped defender in U.S. history, a mark that another mom, Christie Rampone, has since bettered.

WATCH LIVE: “On Her Turf: Inspiring Greatness,” Sunday, 8 p.m. ET — STREAM LINK

Birgit Fischer
Germany
Kayak

Arguably the greatest female Olympian. Fischer earned seven of her eight Olympic golds after becoming a mother in 1986. She won three world titles the year following her first childbirth. She took three years off after her second child, returning to win Olympic or world titles seven straight years from 1992 through 1998.

Juli Inkster
United States
Golf

Played most of her professional career as a mom. Inkster won four of her seven majors more than five years after having her two daughters, including a pair of U.S. Opens.

Mary Keitany
Kenya
Marathon

Became the second-fastest female marathoner in history almost nine years after having her first of two children. The slight, soft-spoken Keitany won four of the last six New York City Marathons and three London Marathons.

Larisa Latynina
Soviet Union
Gymnastics

The Olympic career medals leader (18) before Michael Phelps broke the record in 2012. Latynina competed at the 1958 World Championships in Moscow while four months pregnant with daughter Tatyana. She didn’t tell a soul she was expecting, fearful she would be forced to sit out. She won five of six events and took silver on the other. Two years later, she repeated as Olympic team, all-around and floor exercise champion. She finished her Olympic career with another six medals, including two golds, at the 1964 Tokyo Games.

Pat McCormick
United States
Diving

Swept the springboard and platform at a second straight Olympics in 1956 after giving birth to son Tim earlier that year. McCormick and Greg Louganis remain the only divers to sweep the golds at multiple Olympics.

Candace Parker
United States
Basketball

Had daughter Lailaa in 2009. Earned her second Olympic gold medal in 2012. Earned her second WNBA MVP in 2013. Became a WNBA champion for the first time in 2016.

Wilma Rudolph
United States
Track and Field

The 17th of 18 children who contracted polio as an infant, unable to walk properly until age 11, swept the 100m, 200m and 4x100m at the 1960 Rome Olympics. She had daughter Yolanda two years earlier, shortly after her high school graduation.

Sheryl Swoopes
United States
Basketball

Debuted in the WNBA’s first season in 1997 less than two months after having son Jordan. Swoopes starred on the Houston Comets teams that won the first four WNBA titles. She was WNBA MVP three times and earned her second and third Olympic gold medals in 2000 and 2004.

Kerri Walsh Jennings
United States
Beach Volleyball

The greatest female beach volleyball player in history had sons Joey (conceived shortly after her 2008 Olympic title) and Sundance in 2009 and 2010, between her second and third gold medals with Misty May-Treanor. Walsh Jennings had daughter Scout in 2013, then came back to earn bronze with April Ross at the Rio Games. She’s still at it, looking to become the oldest Olympic beach volleyball player in history at age 42 in Tokyo, which would be her sixth Games overall.

MORE: Moms set to star at Tokyo Olympics

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

Follow @nbcolympictalk

Ryan Crouser breaks world record in shot put at Los Angeles Grand Prix

By OlympicTalkMay 27, 2023, 5:56 PM EDT

Two-time Olympic champion Ryan Crouser registered one of the greatest performances in track and field history, breaking his world record and throwing three of the six farthest shot puts of all time at the Los Angeles Grand Prix on Saturday.

Crouser unleashed throws of 23.56 meters, 23.31 and 23.23 at UCLA’s Drake Stadium. His previous world record from the Tokyo Olympic Trials was 23.37. He now owns the top four throws in history, and the 23.23 is tied for the fifth-best throw in history.

“The best thing is I’m still on high volume [training], heavy throws in the ring and heavy weights in the weight room, so we’re just starting to work in some speed,” the 6-foot-7 Crouser, who is perfecting a new technique coined the “Crouser slide,” told Lewis Johnson on NBC.

Sha’Carri Richardson won her 100m heat in 10.90 seconds into a slight headwind, then did not start the final about 90 minutes later due to cramping, Johnson said. Richardson is ranked No. 1 in the world in the 100m in 2023 (10.76) and No. 2 in the 200m (22.07).

Jamaican Ackeem Blake won the men’s 100m in a personal best 9.89 seconds. He now ranks third in the world this year behind Kenyan Ferdinand Omanyala and American Fred Kerley, who meet in the Diamond League in Rabat, Morocco on Sunday (2-4 p.m. ET, CNBC, NBCSports.com/live, the NBC Sports app and Peacock).

The next major meet is the USA Track and Field Outdoor Championships in early July, when the top three in most individual events qualify for August’s world championships.

Richardson will bid to make her first global championships team, two years after having her Olympic Trials win stripped for testing positive for marijuana and one year after being eliminated in the first round of the 100m at USATF Outdoors.

LA GRAND PRIX: Full Results

Also Saturday, Olympic champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn of Puerto Rico won the 100m hurdles in 12.31, the fastest time ever this early in a year. Nigerian Tobi Amusan, who at last July’s worlds lowered the world record to 12.12, was eighth in the eight-woman field in 12.69.

Maggie Ewen upset world champion Chase Ealey in the shot put by throwing 20.45 meters, upping her personal best by more than three feet. Ewen went from 12th-best in American history to third behind 2016 Olympic champion Michelle Carter and Ealey.

Marileidy Paulino of the Dominican Republic ran the fastest women’s 400m since the Tokyo Olympics, clocking 48.98 seconds. Paulino is the Olympic and world silver medalist. Olympic and world champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas is on a maternity break.

Rio Olympic bronze medalist Clayton Murphy won the 800m in 1:44.75, beating a field that included most of the top Americans in the event. Notably absent was 2019 World champion Donovan Brazier, who hasn’t raced since July 20 of last year amid foot problems.

CJ Allen won the 400m hurdles in a personal best 47.91, consolidating his argument as the second-best American in the event behind Olympic and world silver medalist Rai Benjamin, who withdrew from the meet earlier this week.

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

Follow @nbcolympictalk

Primoz Roglic set to win Giro d’Italia over Geraint Thomas

Associated PressMay 27, 2023, 4:13 PM EDT

Getty Images

Primož Roglič all but secured the Giro d’Italia title on Saturday by overtaking leader Geraint Thomas on the penultimate stage despite having a mechanical problem on the mountain time trial.

Roglič started the stage 26 seconds behind Thomas — who was trying to become the oldest Giro champion in history — but finished the route 40 seconds quicker than the British cyclist after the demanding climb of the Monte Lussari.

That saw Roglič move into the leader’s pink jersey, 14 seconds ahead of Thomas going into the race’s mainly ceremonial final stage.

Roglič was cheered on all the way by thousands of fans from just across the border to his native Slovenia. They packed the slopes of the brutal ascent up Monte Lussari, which had an elevation of more than 3,000 feet and gradients of up to 22%.

The 33-year-old Roglič celebrated at the end with his wife and son, who was wearing a replica of the pink jersey.

“Just something amazing, eh? It’s not at the end about the win itself, but about the people, and the energy here, so incredible, really moments to live and to remember,” said Roglič, who had tears in his eyes during the post-stage television interview, which he did with his son in his arms.

It will be a fourth Grand Tour victory for Roglič, who won the Spanish Vuelta three years in a row from 2019-2021

Roglič also almost won the Tour de France in 2020, when he was leading going into another mountain time trial on the penultimate stage. But that time it was Roglič who lost time and the race to compatriot Tadej Pogačar in one of the most memorable upsets in a Grand Tour in recent years.

It appeared as if the Jumbo-Visma cyclist’s hopes were evaporating again when he rode over a pothole about halfway through the brutal climb up Monte Lussari and his chain came off, meaning he had to quickly change bicycles.

His teammates and staff had their hands over their heads in disbelief.

Despite that setback, Roglič — who had been 16 seconds ahead of Thomas at the previous intermediate time check — went on to increase his advantage.

“I dropped the chain, I mean it’s part of it,” he said. “But I got started again and I just went … I had the legs, the people gave me extra (energy).”

The 33-year-old Roglič won the stage ahead of Thomas. Joao Almeida was third, 42 seconds slower.

For Thomas, his bad luck at the Giro continued. In 2017, he was involved in a crash caused by a police motorbike, and three years later he fractured his hip after a drinks bottle became lodged under his wheel – being forced to abandon both times.

Thomas turned 37 on Thursday. The Ineos Grenadiers cyclist had seemed poised to become the oldest Giro winner in history — beating the record of Fiorenzo Magni, who was 34 when he won in 1955.

“I could feel my legs going about a kilometer and a half from the top. I just didn’t feel I had that real grunt,” Thomas said. “I guess it’s nice to lose by that much rather than a second or two, because that would be worse I think.

“At least he smashed me and to be honest Primoz deserves that. He had a mechanical as well, still put 40 seconds into me so chapeau to him. If you’d told me this back in (February), March, I would have bit your hand off but now I’m devastated.”

Thomas and Roglič exchanged fist bumps as they waited their turn to ride down the ramp at the start of the 11.6-mile time trial.

The Giro will finish in Rome on Sunday, with 10 laps of a seven-mile circuit through the streets of the capital, taking in many of its historic sites.

“One more day to go, one more focus, because I think the lap is quite hard, technical. So it’s not over til it’s finished,” Roglič said. “But looks good, voila.”

The route will pass by places such as the Altare della Patria, the Capitoline Hill, the Circus Maximus and finish at the Imperial Forums, in the shadow of the Colosseum.

The Tour de France starts July 1, airing on NBC Sports and Peacock.

OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!

Follow @nbcolympictalk

More: Olympics

More: Olympics