Breanna Stewart and the other moms on the US women’s basketball team are enjoying some special moments while chasing Olympic history.
In addition to trying to become the first Olympic team — male or female — to win eight consecutive gold medals, they are having a rare bonding experience at the Paris Games.
The Americans will play Australia on Friday in the semifinals, looking to extend the program's winning streak to 60 straight games and reach Sunday's gold medal game.
But they have an important appointment before the game: A birthday party Stewart's daughter Ruby, who turns 3 on Friday.
“There’s a ton of kids with our Team USA group," said Stewart, a two-time gold medalist. "So I’m sure we’ll find something fun. Very Paw Patrol-like, but it’ll just be a great day for her. And, you know, for us, we’ll just be continuing on our journey.”
These games are very different than the last Olympics. The 2021 Tokyo Games were held under strict pandemic protocols, and these women aren’t the only parents who’ve brought their children with them to Paris.
In Tokyo, the U.S. women's basketball team had only two mothers on the team: Diana Taurasi and Skylar Diggins-Smith. Now there's five parents: four moms and one “Pops” as two-time gold medalist Brittney Griner prefers to be called as the newest member with her wife giving birth to a boy just a couple weeks before the team headed to Europe.
Napheesa Collier said the children are making the Paris Games even more special. With families and nannies helping, the children held their own Olympics when the team was busy in group play. Collier's 2-year-old daughter, Mila Bazzel, missed out on competing.
“My daughter was sleeping, so we missed it," Collier said. “It was during that time. But it’s really fun to have all of them ... around.”
Chelsea Gray and her wife have a baby boy. Taurasi and wife — former Australian Olympian and WNBA All-Star Penny Taylor — have two children: a boy and a girl. Stewart also has two children with her wife, retired Spanish basketball player Marta Xargay with baby boy Theo their second.
With the U.S. women staying in Paris and commuting to Lille for group games, tipoff coincided with bedtime. Now that the medal-round games are in Paris, Taylor brought their children to Wednesday night's win over Nigeria sitting a few rows behind the U.S. bench and Taurasi.
For Stewart, the best part is knowing this isn't the last time these children will hang together. And not just at future USA Basketball events or possible upcoming Olympics.
“They’re just going to continue to grow with one another,” Stewart said. "But also, we all feel the same mom life as well. So like being great on and off the court and understanding, you know, how difficult that is.”
That's the lesson Olympic newcomer Sabrina Ionescu —who is learning firsthand as a self-described “kid magnet." Parents regularly manage work and childcare.
These women have their children around while competing not only against the world but history. The only other team to win seven straight gold medals were the U.S. men's basketball program between 1936 and 1968.
The U.S. has the challenge of sustaining a standard started after its last Olympic women's basketball loss in Barcelona in 1992. Ionescu said it's been amazing to watch these moms chase gold, then immediately flip the switch from work to parenting.
“They go back to the hotel, and they’re full-time moms,” Ionescu said. “Like they don’t get a break. And it’s really, really like amazing. You can’t really put into words like how strong these women are.”
Collier is using her cell phone constantly to document this experience knowing her daughter won't remember anything.
“I take so many pictures and videos of her and us here, to help tell the story of that. ... the best I can," Collier said. "She’ll know what the Olympics is. so it’ll be easy to explain that part. But for her, it’ll be normal.”
For U.S. coach Cheryl Reeve, this is part of basketball's evolution of supporting women on and off the court. The coach of the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx has seen that league and players negotiate for better policies helping players with maternity leave and child care.
“We’re evolving as a society I think in terms of what’s acceptable, what women can do, and women are obviously showing us that we can be anything,” Reeve said. “And we do. The harder it is, the more women are stepping up and doing it.”
Having children along with families eases the tension of the high expectations on the court and feeling like the world is waiting for a U.S. misstep. Most of the children have better things to do than watch mom play.
“I think they’d rather go to a playground or something," Stewart said, “but it’s it’s great to have them here.”
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AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games
