Olympics in Rio: Russian team athletes who became mothers

Elena Isinbayeva, athletics

Elena gave birth to her daughter Eva on June 28, 2014.— I wanted to name my daughter, as my husband says, inadequate names. Olympia in honor of the Olympics. Or Delfina, because I love dolphins. But Nikita said it would be Eva. And I agreed! By the way, Eva looks like her husband. Friends tell me: "Lena, don't be offended, but there is nothing of yours here." I am not offended. After all, Eva has my character. Explosive! We do not sit still. Isinbayeva returned to training very soon. — Both I and my coach Evgeny Trofimov doubted whether I should return to sports, — Isinbayeva said in an interview with Channel One. — After all, I am already old, and I gave birth. But when Eva was three months old, fans began to ask me very often: "Lena, will you still perform, will we see you?" And Evgeny Vasilyevich and I decided that we needed to go back. Our relatives help us look after our daughter. “All this is not without the help of our grandmothers,” Elena admitted in an interview with Wday.ru. “Today I am 100% occupied. I train in the first half of the day, and we work in the foundation in the second half, looking for projects and partners. I would not have managed without the support of my parents and my husband’s parents. They are with our daughter during the day, and now I am only in the morning and at night.” Unfortunately, the athlete, alas, did not make it to the Olympics in Brazil. But Elena has character, she did not give in to this goal, she set herself a new one. To give birth to another child. “I am a girl, I need to strengthen the family, expand it. Therefore, I will concentrate on increasing the number. This is a more rewarding business,”

Olga Zabelinskaya, cycling

She made her Olympic debut in London 2012at the age of 32. The mother of two won two bronze medals back then. Despite the fact that Zabelinskaya was diagnosed with a heart defect as a child. The medical record, crossed out with a black marker, had the following written in large letters: “sports are contraindicated.” Olga and her mother began looking for a doctor who would take responsibility and stamp the “Healthy” stamp. And such a doctor was found at the Military Medical Academy. “Of course, this question comes up all the time, because doctors hear heart murmurs and see something there on an ultrasound,” says Olga. “But in my situation, the defect is visible when I’m calm, but after exertion, everything disappears. It turns out that I, on the contrary, need to constantly load myself up to feel good, and maybe this is also the reason why I ended up in sports. Her older children were born during the years of the Olympics - in 2004 and 2008. - With my first child, I did not take a time-out at all. I got off the bike two weeks before giving birth. I went to the maternity hospital on December 31 after training, I planned to give birth on January 1. But I gave birth on the 12th. In the maternity hospital, I tried to walk up and down the stairs more to stay in shape. And a month after giving birth, I was already on a bike and went to a training camp with my son Bogdan. And when I gave birth to Vitalik, I decided to take a break from cycling. I had no desire to train or race, at all. But when my child turned six months old, I felt some untapped energy in me. They were bursting to get out, and I decided to return to big-time sports. In April 2013, Olga gave birth to her third child, a daughter. And a few months later she was already competing at the World Championships. And soon it became known that Zabelinskaya had qualified for her second Olympic Games. And not just qualified, but performed brilliantly! On August 10, our Olga Zabelinskaya won a silver medal in the individual time trial, losing only a few seconds to the American athlete.

Anastasia Fesikova, swimming

The 2012 London Olympics were memorableNastya Zueva not only won a silver medal for the 200-meter breaststroke, but also a marriage proposal from swimmer Sergei Fesikov. He asked Nastya to marry him at the top of the London Ferris wheel. In June 2014, Fesikova gave birth to a son, Maxim. Few believed that after giving birth and a year and a half break, she would return to big-time sports. She would start life in the pool from scratch, even under a new name, although all the awards were won by Zueva, and for the world of swimming she is a brand. But she returned, starting training in September 2014. Although Nastya did not win medals at the 2015 World Championships in Kazan, the Russian record holder in all breaststroke distances can repeat her achievement in London in Rio 2016 and even surpass it. - I am a very restless mother. I often worry, I constantly think about my son. If it weren't for my mother, who decided to help us and took maternity leave, I probably wouldn't have been able to return to swimming. When we come back from training, we take the child, and grandma rests. Our son is such an anti-stress. When we see him, all the fatigue after training goes away, and we are ready to go into battle with renewed strength, - Nastya admitted in an interview with the channel "Russia 1".