CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Elana Meyers Taylor’s boys are too young to realize that mom is an Olympic champion. Kaillie Armbruster Humphries’ son just wanted to play in the snow around the medals podium where his mom had just stood.
But every woman who’s ever tried to juggle motherhood and a career, who’s felt as if she’s giving everything she’s got and more and still coming up short, they’ll know. And Meyers Taylor and Armbruster Humphries hope they’ll see a little of themselves in the two women on that Olympic podium.
“I hope it shows that just because you’re a mom doesn’t mean you have to stop living your dreams,” said Meyers Taylor, who finally got the Olympic gold medal she has so long sought by winning the monobob on Monday, Feb. 16, finishing ahead of Germany’s Laura Nolte and Armbruster Humphries.
The standards for any woman are impossible. Add a family, in whatever fashion it is, and it gets exponentially more difficult. Add getting older, in a society that considers women over the hill before they’re eligible to run for president, and you might as well be scaling the mountain on which the Milano Cortina bobsled track is located.
Meyers Taylor and Armbruster Humphries have felt that. Have felt all that.
Two nights ago was the first time Armbruster Humphries had been apart from her son since he was born and it gutted her. She knew she needed rest – she is competing in the Olympics, after all – and she wouldn’t get it with a toddler who still wakes up in the middle of the night.
That didn’t make it any easier.
“My husband is here, my parents are here, my in-laws are here. So I knew he was in really good hands,” Armbruster Humphries said. “So for me, it’s compartmentalizing probably more than anything. Recognizing that mom guilt is a thing and it existed, but that I needed to do it in order to be my best.”
Meyers Taylor and Armbruster Humphries are the first to acknowledge they are not doing it alone. They both have husbands who are supportive and, as former bobsledders, understand the grind. They have families who pitch in.
The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee provides resources, financial and otherwise, for its athletes who are mothers, which isn’t something a lot of women can say.
But no one else can quiet the voice in her head that every working mother has. No one else can weigh the conflicting choices and decide what sacrifices are acceptable. No one else can tell them it’s OK when priorities change or give them permission to put themselves first.
“This medal is also for all those moms who weren’t necessarily able to live their dreams, but their kids are now their dreams,” Meyers Taylor said. “Because those people keep me grounded. Those people kept me going. And those people are the ones who reached out to me when things got hard and encouraged me to keep going.”
And as they stood atop the medals podium with their little boys watching, Meyers Taylor and Armbruster Humphries hoped they gave other moms that same type of encouragement.
It doesn’t matter if they are chasing Olympic medals or just trying to get through the day. These two badass women understand and empathize with the struggles because they face them, too.
“I hope that it inspires other people to go out and chase their dreams, whatever it may be,” Armbruster Humphries said. “I grew up in the sport when, if you have kids, once you get to 40, it’s all downhill. And Elana and I get to be proof that that’s not true.
“It might look different then when you’re 20, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t stand on top of the podium. It doesn’t mean you can’t go out there and achieve your dreams.”
It’s not easy, this juggling act. But for everyone who does it, those Olympic medals around the necks of Meyers Taylor and Armbruster Humphries are for you, too.
Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.