A cross-country skier is the only mother competing for the US Olympic team after having her son in April 2016.
Kikkan Randall, 35, had a child after the Sochi Games and is back in Pyeongchang, South Korea, for her fifth and final Olympics.
The Olympian from Anchorage, Alaska, took a break during the 2015-16 ski season to have her son, Breck Stuart, before resuming training one month later.
She is the only mother out of 244 athletes on the US Olympic team while there are 20 fathers competing.
Kikkan Randal, 35, is the only mother on the US Olympic team for this year’s Winter Olympics. She had her son, Breck, in April of 2016. Pictured is them skiing together in 2017
The five-time Olympian competed on Thursday in the Women’s 10km freestyle race. She took 16th while other members of the US team took 15th and 5th. No US woman has ever won an Olympic medal during this race
Randall said she was ready to start a family but not quite ready to retire from cross-country skiing.
This led her to becoming the only mother out of 244 Olympians competing for the US for the Winter Olympics.
The skier didn’t let motherhood stop her from training to get back to the Olympics. She trained into the final weeks of her pregnancy before she had her son.
Once Breck was born, Randall posted pictures on her Instagram less than a month later showing she was back on her skis.
She said her husband and parents helped her have the opportunity to keep on competing, but the International Olympic Committee has an opportunity to do more to support Olympic athletes who have children.
The mother-of-one will have another shot at winning an Olympic medal on Saturday when she competes in the 4x5k relay race. Pictured is Randall during her race on Thursday
Randall continued to train in the final weeks leading up to the birth of her son. She didn’t compete in the 2015-16 ski season. Pictured is her training in Anchorage, Alaska, in 2016
Randall competed on Thursday in PyeongChang during the Women’s 10km freestyle race, but she fell short of getting a medal and placed 16th.
No women from the US have ever won an Olympic medal in this cross-country skiing event.
Randall made her Olympic debut in 2002 when she competed at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah, at 19 years old.
Since then, she has competed in four other Olympics but has never won a medal.
She will have another chance of earning a medal when she competes with her other teammates in the Women’s 4x5k relay race on Saturday.