Putting Mothers on the Podium

May 8, 2010 by Donnella Wood

It is the night that Apolo Ohno is competing for his seventh medal and I'm in the checkout line with my four-month old son at the Seven Corners New Season's Grocery Store. "I remember that time," a woman next to me says pointing to my son. My son is chewing contently on his toy giraffe as I reply with a sigh, "This is the most physical job I have ever done and I feel like I deserve a medal."  The woman busts out laughing as I chatter on about how she probably deserves 100 plus medals for having a 10 and thirteen year old.   As much as this may seem like a funny antidote to her, the truth is I have been considering this medal metaphor since my first trimester when I was dead tired and depressed.

Being a mother is one physically demanding endeavor. We fall down a lot and keep going when we are exhausted. We often lack coaches or sponsors. We may feel victorious and defeated within the same hour. At the beginning of our mothering journey our post-partum bodies have compromised cores, pelvic floors, and ligaments and still they manufacture milk day and night, carry, comfort, and change babies all with inadequate amount of rest.  Often our bodies are changed for life and still we carry on because there is no getting off of this track.  And unlike Apolo Ohno we don't have heats that last minutes; our event last 24/7 without time for training.

Maybe you haven't stopped to consider that being a mother is an athletic event; if you haven't I encourage you to do so and this Mothers' Day join me in paying reverence to all mothers out there.  Today, I'm sending all mothers virtual medals to  honor their "inner Olympian" and the way they look in their daily uniform.  I honor the stamina  it takes to continue to show up for family and self.  I honor the ever changing nature of the sport and how it calls upon  multiple dimensions of ourselves. As a new member of the Mother Team, I proudly share the podium with mothers from all nations and as a big fan I cheer you on.

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