MILAN — When Francesca Lollobrigida collected Italy’s first gold medal of the Milan Cortina Olympics this week, the speedskater immediately looked for her 2-year-old son, Tommaso, so they could celebrate together. She found him but was told he wasn’t allowed to go over to where she was after winning the 3,000 meters.
“So, I said, ‘Fine. I’ll go to him,’ ” Lollobrigida said. She sprinted over to Tommaso and enveloped him in a big hug; soon, he was shushing his mother while in her arms during TV interviews.
“Aside from doing this for me, I did it for him, so one day he will be proud of me. Not just for being an Olympic champion, but for all of the journey we’ve lived together,” explained Lollobrigida, who added another gold in the 5,000 on Thursday. “The message I wanted to show is that I didn’t choose between being an athlete and being a mom.”
Yes, mothers and fathers are part of the fabric of these Olympics, and so, too, are their children who’ve tagged along. The 232-athlete U.S. roster, for example, included nine moms — up from just one at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics and from four at Beijing in 2022 — and 17 dads.
They’re as little as 1-year-old River, the son of Swiss curlers Yannick Schwaller and Briar Schwaller-Hürlimann of Switzerland — the kid dubbed the “Curling Baby” for toting a broom twice his size.
River is hardly alone at the curling. Canadian couple Jocelyn Peterman and Brett Gallant have their son, Luke, 2, with them. And Eagan sisters Tabith and Tara Peterson are in Italy with two toddlers, Tara’s son Eddie and Tabitha’s daughter Noelle.
This is the third Olympics for Tabitha and second for Tara, and obviously their first with their children in tow. It certainly hasn’t affected their play. The U.S. team — which also includes lead Taylor Anderson-Heide, third Cory Thiesse and alternate Aileen Geving — is 2-1 after the Americans’ 9-8 victory over Canada on Friday.
“You only have so many hours to dedicate to curling. The rest, I want to be a mother. I also have a day job as well — I’m a dentist — so there’s just a lot of things that we need to balance,” Tara Peterson said.
“As for competition, it just makes it that much more sweet when … you make the big shot, you win the big game, you look over, and there’s a little baby screaming, ‘Mama! Mama!’ ”
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