 |
| Beijing bound: Weight lifter Melanie Roach says pumping iron is the easiest part of her day. Ellen M. Banner/The Seattle Times/AP |
Before Beijing, these moms are already Olympians
Eighteen women, from 30-something judoka Valerie Gotay to hurdler and mother of infant twins LaShinda Demus, have managed to combine motherhood with top-level training and competition.
from the June 4, 2008 edition
Page 2 of 3
|
This feature requires a newer version of Macromedia Flash Player and javascript-enabled browser.
|
Reporter Mark Sappenfield discusses an unusual sacrifice made by an Olympic hopeful: giving up her role as home-schooling mom.
But she pushed herself too hard to reach that moment on the verge of her first Olympics. She had tried to compete in a lower weight class than was natural for her body type, and before the weigh-in, she collapsed and went into convulsions. The illness was so severe that there was little choice but to quit judo.
Yet the intensity that had once taken form in a precocious young judoka, drinking in the life of an elite athlete as though through a hosepipe, now found another outlet: her daughters. It began as a dissatisfaction with her local schools and became the focus of her second act: being a teacher as well as a mother.
She had no course curriculum, only a deep desire to touch her children's inquisitive minds.
"Any time my daughter had a question – like, how do birds fly – it was like: That's our lesson for today," says Gotay, unable to prevent a grin at the memory. There were days spent surfing the Internet, building models, and cooking – a great way to teach children math, Gotay insists.
"It's teaching a love of learning," Gotay adds. "Once you do that, there comes a point when you just step away."
That point came sooner than she expected – when she returned to judo full-time and moved to Texas. "I was completely overwhelmed," she says. "Over time, I realized I had to let this go."
Easiest part of the day: pumping iron
For other Olympian mothers, the feeling of being overwhelmed is familiar. "Weightlifting is the easiest part of my day," says Roach.
It is an odd thing to hear from a 5-foot-1, 30-something with a pageboy haircut. Then she talks of being owner-operator of a gymnastics academy, wife of a Washington state legislator, a Sunday School teacher, and a mother of three, including an autistic son – all in her high-energy, quick-talking, perma-smiling persona – and Olympic weightlifting does appear a welcome distraction.
"Because I spend my day preparing the kids for the school bus, making sure we have dinner, getting the kids off the bus, getting homework done … when it's time to go to the gym, I get to take a breath," she says. "It's like a moment to myself, something that most moms don't get."
Last month, Roach was named to the No. 1 slot on the four-woman team that will compete in Beijing.
RSS feed
