Tokyo 2020: Serena Williams leads Olympic mothers with gold medal hopes

The Olympics is the pinnacle of sport. No other sporting event comes close, given the number of sports that peak at the Summer Games.

Volume is perhaps the reason why the number of comeback stories, triumphs against the odds and fascinating backgrounds is always so much larger at the Olympics than anywhere else.

At the Rio 2016 Games, there were 4,700 female competitors making up 45 per cent of competitors, both figures the most at an Olympics. There are improvements on both counts expected in Tokyo this summer.

Given the number of female athletes compared to any other sporting event – last year’s expanded Fifa Women’s World Cup saw 552 players between the 24 teams – it also explains why there are so many mothers competing.

As comebacks go, there is little to compare to the women who return to elite competition after giving birth and that is even more impressive when these athletes are also challenging for gold.

British Olympian Laura Kenny sees it slightly differently.

Olympic comebacks and the Tokyo 2020 athletes with points to prove

“I don’t like to call it a comeback because it’s not as if I’ve been injured or anything,” she told The Independent. “It was a choice to have a child.”

Nevertheless, the winner of the women’s team pursuit and omnium gold in Rio four years ago has had to make it back to that level. She started just six months after the birth of Albie, her child with fellow gold medal cyclist Jason Kenny, swapping maternity leave for the medal hunt.

The Briton will not be alone in going for gold. Here are some of the other mothers with medal hopes in Tokyo.

Nicola Spirig (Switzerland): triathlon

The Swiss triathlete is dominant in the sport and has been for years. Won gold in London and silver in Rio, at 37 she wants to go out on a high in Tokyo and the mother of three was back on the Olympic qualifying trail last September, just 12 weeks after giving birth. Qualifying would see the “Superfrau” compete at a fifth Olympics.

Valerie Adams (New Zealand): shot put

The shot putter won silver at the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in 2018 after giving birth and has had a second child since but she plans on being at Tokyo 2020. Adams is in line for a third gold to add to those she won in Beijing and London. The 35-year-old also won silver in Rio.

Dawn Harper-Nelson (USA): 100m hurdles

Last November the Olympic champion announced her comeback. She had retired the previous September and given birth in April 2019 but is now bidding for a third Olympic medal. The first came as a 24-year-old in Beijing, where she won gold in borrowed spikes, which she followed with silver in London, despite running a new personal best.

Mary Kom (India): boxing

The 36-year-old is a six-time world champion but hopes to end her wait for Olympic gold this summer. The flyweight is on the right track after beating former junior world champion Nikhat Zareen for India’s place in next month’s Asia-Oceania qualifiers in a heated encounter last month. Kom, who has three children, won bronze in London.

Serena Williams (USA): tennis

Perhaps the most famous mother competing today, Williams’ return to tennis after giving birth has been well documented. She has come close to adding to her 23 singles titles since and a record win before next June would guarantee she makes the US team for Tokyo. Williams is the only American woman in the WTA top 10 and has three Olympic doubles golds and singles gold from London.

Allyson Felix (USA): 400m

In one of the comeback stories of the world championships in Doha last October, Felix won gold as part of the 4x400m mixed relay. This came less than a year after the athlete underwent a caesarean section to deliver her daughter at just 32 weeks. She has added motivation in what would be her fifth Olympics. She is one medal short of Carl Lewis’ US track and field Olympic record and only three off becoming the USA’s most decorated female Olympian.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (Jamaica): 100m

Another winner at the world championships after returning to the track following giving birth. Fraser-Pryce, who gave birth to her son a day after the 2017 worlds, won gold in the 100m in Doha, taking her tally to eight worlds golds overall. The 32-year-old celebrated on the track with son Zyon and will hope to do the same if she can reclaim the 100m gold she won in Beijing and London.

Liu Hong (China): racewalk

The winner of gold in the 20km racewalk in Rio was also a winner in Doha, coming first in an all-Chinese podium. Liu gave birth to a daughter in November 2017 and has since balanced training with motherhood.

Nia Ali (USA): 100m hurdles

The 31-year-old took gold in Doha to become world champion just 16 months after giving birth to her second child. Ali, who won silver at the Rio Games, celebrated with an American flag and her two children on the track.

Gemma McCaw (New Zealand): hockey

The Black Sticks star retired in 2017 but she is back on the field ahead of Tokyo 2020. She and husband Richie McCaw, the All Blacks rugby star, had their first child in December 2018 but she returned to club hockey four months later and is in the preliminary squad preparing for the Olympics. The team lost the bronze medal match to Germany in Rio.

Gwen Jorgensen (USA): track and Field

The winner of gold in the triathlon in Rio, the first US champion, has not only given birth but changed events in the last four years. Jorgensen had intended to contest and win the marathon in Tokyo but those plans changed at the end of last year and she is expected to try for the US team in the 10,000 and 5,000m. She is still targeting another gold.

Alex Morgan (USA): football

The US women’s team won the World Cup again last year but they have unfinished business at the Olympics after crashing out in the quarters in Rio four years ago. Morgan has said that she wants to be in Tokyo to help win a first gold even though her first child is due in the spring. The 29-year-old, who won gold in London, is also in line to become the United States’ record scorer at Olympics.