Women Who Came Back From Pregnancy to Dominate Track & Field

In January 2026, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone announced that she is pregnant and expecting her first child. This has led to both celebration, as well as questions on if she could make a successful return to the track, especially ahead of the 2028 Olympics.

Though pregnancy has sometimes been seen as the end of an athlete's career, the history of elite women in Track & Field tells a very different story.

We'll look back a few women throughout history, from Allyson Felix and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, to Gwen Torrence and Wilma Rudolph, who stepped away from competition to start families, but returned to win Olympic and World championship medals.

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Chapters:

00:00 Intro

01:12 Women Returning From Pregnancy

03:22 Allyson Felix

05:18 Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce

08:17 Nia Ali

10:33 Lashinda Demus

12:19 Yordonka Donkova

13:24 Gwen Torrence

14:53 Valarie Brisco-Hooks

16:56 Irena Szewinska

18:58 Wilma Rudolph

20:41 Fanny Blankers-Koen

22:43 Summary

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