For me, part of it was selfish because four-man is the coolest event. It’s four guys, four girls, or what have you, jumping into a tiny sled all quick. But the other part is that it never made sense to me, guys being able to drive bobsleds better. Maybe sometimes people apply the stereotype that women can’t drive cars to bobsled. That’s bogus. There are plenty of women who can drive just as well if not better than men.
Why is it important to be able to see women and men racing alongside each other?
For so long, as a young girl, you’re told that you’ll never be equal to a boy. Fortunately, my parents have three girls, and they never let us believe we were any less than our male counterparts.
I think seeing it helps those people who are constantly delivered messages that they’ll never be as good as a man. You’re like, Hey, maybe these lies that I’ve been told my whole life aren’t correct. Maybe I can challenge men in some other areas. Maybe it’s in the classroom, maybe it’s in the boardroom. The world would be such a better place if more women had the ability to take the reins.
That’s so important. Speaking of parenting, this is going to be your first Olympics as a mom. You’ve been very consistent about pointing out how that’s rare in sports and needs to be less rare. How has being a mother changed you as an athlete?
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The track we were just at, in Altenberg, is a very tough track for me. I’ve got more crashes there, I think, than any other track in my career. And I’m sitting in the parking lot warming up and getting ready for the race, and I was like, Man, this track is so hard; my brain gets fried doing this. And then I had the thought: But at least I’m not in the NICU right now. I will take a thousand runs down this track—a million runs down this track—compared to what it’s like to sit in the NICU.
My complete perspective has changed on this sport. I absolutely love driving a bobsled, but at the end of the day, number one is my son. He will always come first. Having that perspective frees me to do what I need to do at the track but also realize that if it doesn’t go well, I’m coming home to this little boy, and he doesn’t care. As athletes, sometimes you let a sport define you. But I’m not my results. I’m Nico’s mom. I’m Nic’s wife. I’m all these other things. I feel a lot more willing to take risks and try different things within my sport because I know I have that security behind me.
What were some of the challenges you thought you might face as a mom in sports? How does your reality compare?
I knew one of the biggest challenges would be the financial part of childcare. To prepare for the Winter Games, we went to China for the month of October, came home for a couple of weeks, then left home again in mid-November, and won’t be back until January 18. We needed somebody to be able to take care of Nico while my husband and I were sliding every single day at the track. Fortunately, I had saved the prize money I won in the 2018 Games to make sure I could go into this next adventure. So, that’s what’s paying for Nico right now. And some grants from &Mother and from the Women’s Sports Foundation are helping. But not everybody has all those kinds of resources. What does that look like for the next mother coming, who doesn’t have a medal yet, but wants to try anyway?
Source: SELF
