Snowboard Cross’s new mums on embracing family life and elite sport

As Chloe Trespeuch (FRA) stood on the Mixed Team podium at the FIS Snowboard Cross World Cup in Cervinia in December, she was joined not just by teammate Aidan Chollet but by her little boy Marlo.

The two-time Olympic medalist returned to competition just three months after giving birth to Marlo, finishing 12th at the World Cup in Montafon, Austria, in March 2025, and looking like she had never left the slopes. Her social media feeds are now a mixture of snowboarding and Marlo, and often both together.

Trespeuch says she returned to racing so soon after giving birth because of “my passion for competition, for challenges, for preparing my Olympic season. And to do all the work to come back with my baby on my side was super cool.”

This season, Trespeuch is joined on the circuit by two other new mums. 2014 Olympic and two-time world champion Eva Adamczykova (CZE) gave birth two weeks after Trespeuch, also to a boy; and four-time Olympian Faye Thelen (USA) has returned to competition five months after her second baby. Thelen’s teammate Lindsey Jacobelli, also gave birth in the summer, but although she is back in the gym she is not back to competing.

Trespeuch, Adamczykova and Thelen are not the first mothers to look for a post-partum comeback to Snowboard Cross competition. Italian Rafaella Bruto made a comeback in late 2022 after her first child earlier that year, but following an injury managed only a handful more races.

However, athlete-mothers are becoming more and more common in many sports, with a number of mums winning medals at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and proving that managing the return from giving birth to elite sport is possible.

Trespeuch says she spoke to other mums to find out how they trained during pregnancy and how long after the birth they were able to get back to their previous level. She and Jacobellis have both shared plenty of images and videos of training alongside their babies, while Thelen’s eldest is already snowboarding himself.

The mums say that their children take priority over their sport, despite the challenges involved in managing both a family and a professional snowboarding career.

“The biggest challenge is creating space and time to be successful at both. I promised myself that if I returned to sport it wouldn’t take away from me being a mother. My priority has maintained the same, my children and being present with them. Sport is secondary, and that’s been a really big shift since having children,” says Thelen.

Thelen and Trespeuch say the challenges involved in returning to sport after giving birth are not to be underestimated, with sleepless nights and a changed body, as well as the emotions involved in being a parent.

“Emotionally, being separate sometimes from my baby is hard, but the comeback with him is even more intense,” says Trespeuch.

But she adds that she is motivated to share training with him: gym sessions and yoga with a baby by her side, and running with a stroller, are among the new ways she is keeping fit.

Thelen says: “I was surprised at how quickly my body remembered how to perform both in the gym and on a snowboard. I wasn’t even sure if my body would return to its pre-baby form and most certainly thought it may take years."

She reveals that her return to Snowboard Cross competition was fast, and unexpected.

“I actually never thought I would return to sport. However, when I was pregnant with my daughter I started to get the itch: not because I missed snowboarding but because I really thought I could do it for my children and with my children,” Thelen says.

“My daughter is only six months old now and only seven weeks old when I decided to chase this wild dream. I was inspired by the opportunity to share the Olympic Games with my young family.”

As a result, Thelen says her priority in recent years has just been “trying to be the best mother I could” and surviving the “chaos” of becoming a parent.

“I’m so proud of the mother I have become,” she adds.

“That being said, I do think a lot of what I have learned has prepared me to be a better athlete. To perform under any circumstances, to choose my battles and quit trying to be perfect, to overcome in the face of adversity and to enjoy the ride.”

Proper support for mothers is crucial in making a successful return to sport. Trespeuch acknowledges the help she has had from her team and her boyfriend, as well as the French federation.

“The fact that there are some role models shows to the female athletes that it’s possible to come back strong,” she says.

And she says the third place finish in the team race in Cervinia made all the work worthwhile. Trespeuch might be the first of the trio of reach a podium - but she is unlikely to be the last.