Inside the lives of Team GB's SUPERMUMS! How a special WhatsApp group, GoFundMe page and advice from Jess Ennis-Hill is helping their quest for Paris glory

For the first time at an Olympic Games, the athletes’ village will contain a creche. And no nation will be putting it to better use than Great Britain, whose 327-strong squad includes a record number of mothers.

Such is the changing face of Team GB, a private breastfeeding room and play area have been added to their bespoke performance lodge in Paris. A WhatsApp group has also been set up for sporting supermums to share their parenting and training tips.

Here, Mail Sport meets eight of our Olympic mothers and the children who will be cheering them on.

1. ROS CANTER, 38 

EQUESTRIAN

Canter gave birth to daughter Ziggy in July 2019, 10 months after becoming world eventing champion. The Lincolnshire rider will be making her Olympic debut after missing out on the team for Tokyo, when she travelled as a reserve. 

It takes an army to be a successful event rider and an even bigger army to do it as a mother. My husband Chris picks up the slack on a regular basis and my parents often do the school runs. When horses are involved, plans change very regularly so it’s quite hard to stick to a routine. Organised chaos is probably the best way to describe it!

I often creep out at 5am to go to the gym. One day a couple of months ago, Ziggy woke up and asked me why I was leaving again. So I had a sit down with her and explained what the Olympics were and why I was trying to get there. Ever since then, she has been absolutely great and is getting into the Olympic spirit.

She is going to stay at home while I am in Paris. It will be an intense atmosphere there and I have got a serious job to do. I think it will be better that she has fun with her cousins at home while I get to work. It was great to see my team win a gold medal in Tokyo but hopefully it might be my turn this time.

2. CHARLEY DAVISON, 30

BOXING

The Lowestoft fighter will be competing in her second Games in the bantamweight division after losing in the last 16 in Tokyo. She has three children – Arnell, 12, Armani, 10, and Amir, eight. 

I remember watching the 2012 Olympics with Arnell as a newborn and I could feel I still had the boxing bug. After that, I went to the gym just to get my weight down, and then it turned serious.

I like being called ‘The Boxing Mum’ because it puts it out there for other young females that you can still fulfil your dreams even if you have children.

It has been my dream since eight years old to win an Olympic medal. I know my children understand what I am doing, but it would mean more to have the medal to show them and say, “This is what mummy was working for, this is why I sacrificed so much”.

My coach will always mention the children in the build-up to me going into the ring. He will say, “Remember why you are doing it, there are three reasons” and that massively drives me. I am doing this to hopefully better their future.

I wouldn’t be able to do this without my partner Bruce. He has given up work to be at home full-time looking after the children so I can go to train in Sheffield every week. He is coming to Paris with my eldest two. To have my family there screaming my name, it will be mad.

3. CHARLOTTE DUJARDIN, 38

EQUESTRIAN

The dressage star is Britain’s joint most decorated female Olympian having won six medals, including three golds. This is her fourth Games but first as a mum, after having daughter Isabella last March. 

Sometimes people say it’s the end of your career having kids, but we are showing it actually isn’t. I was back on the horse six weeks after having Isabella and I was competing at nine. I never planned anything. It was all about how I felt and I felt ready.

I always make sure Isabella is a part of it. I am very lucky that she wants to be around the horses and already loves riding. It is actually scary how much of a natural she is. If she takes it up when she gets older, that would be great. I won’t push her to do it, but if she wants to do it, I will fully support her. She can take over from Mummy.

It will be very special for me riding in front of her in Paris. Having her there to support me is just a fantastic feeling and I want to make her proud. I would love to win a medal in both the individual and team event.

But now I am a mum, it makes you really realise that there is much more to life. If I win, it is amazing, but if I lose, I now think, “There is always another day”.

4. HELEN GLOVER, 38

ROWING

Glover won gold in the women’s pair at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics. She stopped to have son Logan in July 2018, then twins Kit and Bo in January 2020, but made a shock return ahead of Tokyo 2020, where she finished fourth. The Cornishwoman will row in the four for the first time in Paris. 

I get messages from women about wanting to come back after having children. Even some of my team-mates pick my brains about the process. It is amazing to be inspiring other people to realise that it is even a possibility. It is becoming the Games of the mums!

My non-negotiable with training is that I finish by 3pm, so I do the pick-up from school and nursery. Sometimes that means me doing sessions after the kids have gone to bed or doing them on my own at home. But it’s the only way of making it work and feeling like I am not dropping the ball as a mum, which is obviously the most important job. It’s not how I would necessarily choose to do my training as the perfect athlete, but I am trying to balance being the best athlete and the best mum.

It does feel impossibly hard some days, but then you get these moments where you go out and race and it’s all falling into place, or you see the kids after training and they start to understand it and ask questions about it.

A huge part of coming back was to have my children there in Paris. This is a moment they will be part of and will be with them for the rest of their lives, which is really special.

5. MATHILDA HODGKINS-BYRNE, 29

ROWING

After giving birth to Freddie in July 2022, Hodgkins-Byrne set up a crowdfunding page to support her first Olympic cycle as a mum, dramatically claiming the final qualifying place for Paris in the double sculls. She rowed alongside her younger sister Charlotte in the quadruple sculls in Tokyo but failed to reach the final. 

I am part of the WhatsApp group of mums from all different sports. It’s been really great to hear from other athletes and go through this journey together. It has definitely helped me get to Paris.

I was lucky that I had a very easy pregnancy. Even at 40 weeks plus six, I swam 2k and was doing weights. Freddie was about six months when I started rowing again. I trained pretty much remotely at the start of last year and then I joined back with the team full-time last September.

Since coming back, the support I have received has been incredible. Freddie has been able to come on training camps with me. He is seen as a normal part of the team now! To bring him, I had to pay for my mum, which was costing over £2,000 per training camp, so the gofundme page was critical in being able to take them out with me.

Freddie is very much going to be there in Paris. I will be significantly less stressed and less upset than if he wasn’t. The European Championships in Szeged in April was the first time I left him behind and I noticed how much I was missing him. Knowing I am going to see him in 45 minutes, not a day or so, makes a huge difference.

6. KATY MARCHANT, 31

CYCLING

The track cyclist from Leeds won an Olympic bronze in the sprint in Rio, then finished sixth in Tokyo, after which she had her son Arthur in June 2022. Marchant will compete in the team sprint and keirin in Paris as one of Team GB’s three cycling mums, with Elinor Barker and Lizzie Deignan also in the squad. 

When I first started cycling, I thought that having a baby would be something I did at the end of my career. But the narrative has changed now around making it a part of your career. When I found out I was pregnant, I instantly knew I wanted to go to Paris.

I trained alongside Jess Ennis when I was a heptathlete and we message quite regularly. When I fell pregnant, she was one of the first people I messaged to say, “Help! What do I do?!”. It was really nice to have her support.

Physically, I have found it OK. But dealing with the mum guilt when I have to go away is hard. It’s been a rollercoaster of a ride but one I’ve managed to juggle thanks to the support of my family.

I never thought I’d be able to survive on less than eight hours’ sleep, but you start to realise that maybe we were a bit precious prior to having a baby. I have realised I am way more capable than I thought I was. I don’t know whether it’s that mum strength, but I do feel better than ever and I am going faster than I’ve ever gone before.

To be able to look up to the stands and see Arthur there will be a dream come true. It is something that motivates me more than ever. Everyone that rides a bike to him is ‘Mummy’, so as long as somebody wins, Arthur will be excited!

7. AMBER RUTTER, 26

SHOOTING

The former world No1 skeet shooter will go for gold in Paris just three months after having son Tommy. Rutter finished sixth in Rio aged 18, but missed the Games in Tokyo after testing positive for Covid the night before she was due to fly. 

I was always confident that Paris would be a possibility for me as long as the birth went smoothly and, thankfully, it very much did. I was back shooting about four weeks afterwards and I feel like I could have shot even sooner.

Luckily, shooting isn’t the most physical sport, it’s more of a mental sport. Since getting back in, I haven’t really felt any different. It really has been like I never stopped.

My life is a little bit chaotic but we are just making it all work. I am so lucky that Tommy is generally quite an easy baby. He is making my life a lot easier as we navigate through this busy time. Sleep is the only thing I have been struggling with, but thankfully he has just started sleeping through, so training is going even better than it was!

As much as I would love Tommy to be there cheering me on at the Olympics, he is going to stay at home. If he cries, my focus will just be directly on him. Having that distraction will just be too much for me to deal with as a mum.

I know that he is going to be well looked after while I am away. We have a whole list of people dying to have him. When I am there, I am there to do a job. I am there to win. But I have a new reason for doing it all now. Ultimately, coming home to him is the prize.

8. BIANCA WILLIAMS, 30

ATHLETICS

Williams is mother to four-year-old boy Zuri. The London sprinter, who is coached by Linford Christie, will run in the 200m at her first Olympics and is also part of Britain’s 4x100m relay squad. 

I was at home with Zuri when I got the call to say I had been selected for the Olympics and I burst into tears. When I told him, he was like, “What’s the Olympics? Why do you want do that?”. He was so funny. He has no idea.

Being a mum and being able to juggle athletics and to actually make the Olympics is huge. it is something I will cherish for ever. I didn’t know where life was going to take me once I had Zuri. I didn’t even know if I even wanted to continue in the sport. But having him has given me a new lease of life.

When I fell pregnant, I had people saying, “Bianca won’t be the same. She won’t get back to the elite level”. But I came back and ran a PB last year after nine years, so they can eat their words.

Most Saturdays, Zuri is at the track with us. He will ride around the track on his little bike, which is cute. He is like everyone’s child there. My whole group really look out for him. He will go and sit with them and eat his lunch. His bond with Linford is really nice. He calls him Uncle Linford.

It will be really nice to see him after I run in Paris. Even if I have a bad day, he always says I have done really well.