After Olympic gold medalist Kendall Coyne Schofield announced her pregnancy in March 2023, the U.S. ice hockey star said many people automatically assumed her news doubled as a retirement announcement.
"A lot of people said, 'Hey, congratulations on a great career,'" Coyne Schofield recalled in October. "I didn't announce my retirement. I just said I was pregnant. And unfortunately, I think sometimes the two go hand in hand … there's a perception that (mothers) can't return to the stage of highest level."
Coyne Schofield and bobsledder Kaillie Armbruster Humphries are among a growing group of U.S. Olympians changing that long-standing narrative. Both planned to bring their children to the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics for the first time, proving women can "have your cake and eat it too," Humphries said.
"There was a lot of years when I was told it couldn't happen. I believed it couldn't happen. It took seeing other women to showcase that it could," said Humphries. "To be able to have both now, I really hope to be amongst the people like Serena Williams and Allyson Felix and those women that have really trail-blazed for myself."
OLYMPIC MOMS: Bobsled moms bring kids to Olympics, juggle 'chaotic' travel
