Diana Taurasi, facing a fierce defense in an Olympic pool play game, fights through a double team to get in the best position to shoot and score for Team USA.
Britain’s Tom Daley sets up on the diving platform. His head calculating every last variable of the attempt with the goal of no splash toward the larger goal of another gold medal.
What both of these athletes have in common besides being medal contenders? They are both parents with toddlers at the Games. Thanks to another Olympic legend and parent, child care is one less thing they’ll need to worry about.
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Retired sprinting champion Allyson Felix has long advocated for child care and maternity issues and as she back in Paris overseeing the first nursery for babies and toddlers nestled in the center of the Athlete’s Village. The space itself will feature facilities for changing, breastfeeding and a safe play area as the parents push for the gold.
The initiative, a partnership with Olympic partner Proctor and Gamble through their Pampers diaper brand, was formed to give additional support to athlete-parents of very young children. The move also fills what has long been seen as a need for elite-level athletes and one Felix knows well. She had her first child in 2018 and navigated the balancing act of being world-class on the track and being a mom.
“I was first really aware that this issue was not talked about enough after I had my daughter, and I came back to compete,” Felix said to The Knockturnal last week. “There are just so many different challenges surrounding motherhood as an athlete. Traveling and staying in hotels was a challenge because of the lack of baby essentials, or even having to nurse while competing in a packed stadium.”
Felix retired from competition after the World Athletics Championships in 2022 as the most decorated U.S. track and field athlete ever. At the Tokyo Olympics three year ago she ended her Olympic career with a surprise bronze in the 400 meters and was part of a dominant women’s 4×400 relay gold for the United States.
She pivoted from a career where she won 20 world championship and 11 Olympic medals over 18 years to be an advocate on issues such as neonatal care, spurred by the complications she dealt with while having her first child in 2018, to her battle with then-sponsor Nike in 2019 when the athletics giant wanted to cut back their sponsorship because she was starting a family.
In addition to this project during the Olympics, Felix secured a commitment from Proctor and Gamble to donate 1 million preemie diapers to neonatal intensive care units nationwide.
