‘We made it work’: These Olympic moms are bringing their kids to the Games

Tabitha Peterson Lovick and her sister, Tara Peterson, have done it all together. They bike together, ski together, golf together. They learned how to curl together at the St. Paul Curling Club when Tabitha was 10 and Tara was 8. They are both Swifties.

And, after the 2022 Olympics in Beijing, where they missed out on reaching the medal round, Tabitha, 36, and Tara, 34, decided they wanted to start families at the same time.

Welcome, Eddie, born to Tara on Sept. 2, 2024. And Noelle, born to Tabitha on Nov. 25, 2024.

In a sport with events all over the world and one path to qualifying for the Olympics involving accumulating points at competitions, Tabitha and Tara knew it would be tricky. They knew they were going to miss some events and would need fill-in players while having their first children.

Physically, they were going to be tested more than they are when throwing rocks at the house.

While talking with them, the phrase “we made it work” came up several times. Balancing the demands of being an Olympic-level athlete through pregnancy and motherhood requires elite time management, understanding of the human body and a dedicated support system.

“We knew that between Olympics 2022 and ’26, we wanted to start our families,” Tabitha said. “So, there’s just kind of a matter of when and trying to time it so that you wouldn’t miss as much as possible in a curling season. And you know, it wasn’t perfect, but it all worked out, and we still made our goal coming back to the Italy Games in ’26.”

“And we kept it a secret,” said Tabitha, who competed until she was 32 weeks pregnant, when she felt too uncomfortable. “Told our team shortly after the event.”

Tara returned to practice three weeks after giving birth. “And my first international competition was seven weeks postpartum,” she added. “And, yes, the human body is amazing!”

Kendall Coyne Schofield of the U.S. women’s hockey team can relate. She took the term “hockey mom” to a new level. Her son, Drew, was born in July 2023, and the Frost forward was back on the ice eight weeks later.

Coyne Schofield played games through her first trimester. Only her husband, former NFL lineman Michael Schofield, and her doctors knew. She didn’t want family members to worry.

“I joke sometimes that there were too many men on the ice,” Coyne Schofield said. “[The referees] just didn’t know.”

Coyne Schofield skated up until she was 31 weeks pregnant. She got to the point where she had to cut her pants when her belly got too big. She worked out until two days before Drew was born and was working out again six weeks after.

“Even after that process, you’re recovering, you’re healing, you’re learning. I was breastfeeding, and it was a lot,” Coyne Schofield, 33, said. “My biggest takeaways are patience and perspective that being a mother has brought me. The other thing I’ll say is just how remarkable the woman’s body is. To see what my body went through and what it’s capable of.”

Coyne Schofield, in Italy for her fourth Winter Games, is only the second mom to play for the U.S. Olympic hockey team, joining Edina’s Jenny Potter. She said she was inspired by seeing bobsledder Elana Meyers Taylor with her son at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

“I remember it so distinctly ‘cause I’m like, she can do it, I can, too, because I already had the mindset that we wanted to start a family after the Olympics,” said Coyne Schofield, who counts her teammates among her babysitters. “I’ve told her that before, just, ‘You gave me so much inspiration in that moment.’”

Tara’s baby came four weeks early, catching everyone off guard. The parents swooped in, cleaned up her house, mowed the lawn and purchased food while she was in the hospital. For Tabitha, the parents, who have a home in Arizona, flew in for support, making dinner, buying groceries, shoveling snow and taking care of the family dog.

Since then, Tara, a dentist, gets days off to work out and train. She drops Eddie off at day care and picks him up at the end of the day. Tabitha, a pharmacist, gets up early to work and train, then gets home in time for her husband to leave for work at 3 p.m.

In-laws help. Friends of their brother, Trent, help.

The kids have been present at matches with their fathers, grandparents and friends in the stands. They had a seat, when they are paying attention, to watch Team Peterson surge through 2025 to qualify for the Olympics.

Cory Thiesse, the third on Team Peterson, recalled a practice in December 2024 before nationals when Tabitha was about a month postpartum. “We had a two-hour practice,” Thiesse said. “I was like: ‘Tab, we can take a break. We don’t need to practice this long.’ She’s like: ‘No, I’m totally good. I’m good to go.’ And she played so incredible her first event back at nationals with us, and it’s just really impressive.

“For my husband and I, we plan to have kids one day. I hope that doesn’t get in the way of my curling career. So, I think that they’ve just been really good role models for a lot of people, that you can become a mom and you can also still chase after your dreams of becoming an Olympian.”

The team was back at full strength by early 2025. In their first competition, they won the USA Curling national championships. In November, they won the U.S Curling Trials in Sioux Falls, S.D. Moments after the win, Eddie and Noelle were on the ice with their mothers as they celebrated. The families were together in December for the Olympic Qualifying Event in Kelowna, British Columbia, when Team Peterson defeated Norway 8-4 to book a trip to Italy.

Now the Peterson sisters want to add to the list of things they have done together: Win an Olympic medal.

It is Tabitha’s third Olympics and Tara’s second. Geving, of Duluth, is a three-time Olympian. They believe their experience mixed with Thiesse, a medalist in mixed doubles curling, and Taylor Anderson-Heide of Minneapolis will make for a podium-worthy team. Team Peterson begins round-robin play Feb. 12 against South Korea.

Thiesse got goose bumps when Tabitha called nearly four years ago to ask her to join the team.

“Last season was a challenge, with Tab and Tara becoming new moms, and we had lots of lineup changes and lots of things going on,” Thiesse said, “But it all was really exciting stuff. I keep telling people there’s a lot of life that happens outside of curling at the same time as when we’re competing. And I think we’ve just done a really great job of supporting each other through that and just working really hard towards the goal that we have.”

“We have a consortium of about 30 people going to support Team Peterson/Team USA,” Skelly-Peterson said. “Family, good friends. Tab’s and Tara’s friends who are bringing their children.”

Their role: Verbal support, and day care for Eddie and Noelle.

“Everyone helps by holding, walking and entertaining the babies at the games and at meals,” Skelly-Peterson said.

Eddie and Noelle will live in condos with their fathers and grandparents. The sisters left for Italy on Jan. 30 unaware of how much contact they could have with their children.

“We will just probably meet at their Airbnb’s after games,” Peterson Lovick wrote in an email Feb. 2. “Both are a 15-minute walk from the arena. Or we’ll find a meeting spot at a restaurant or something once we get there.”

The Peterson sisters made it work.