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Olympic moms: 13 mothers compete for Team USA

The “Celebrating Moms” series of commercials by Proctor & Gamble during Olympic coverage is a tear-jerking ode to sacrifices mothers make to support their kids’ athletic careers. But what about athletes who are mothers, themselves?

Elite athlete moms have the same run-of-the-mill work/life balance as the rest of us. But these 13 Olympic moms do put parenting – both its challenges and rewards – in a new perspective.

6. Khatuna Lorig – Archery

Marcio Jose Sanchez/AP
Khatuna Lorig releases her arrow during an individual ranking round at the 2012 Summer Olympics on July 27, 2012, in London.

Khatuna Lorig was four months pregnant with her son when she competed for the Unified Team of the Soviet Union in Barcelona in 1992. She won the bronze medal.

Ms. Lorig, who became a naturalized US citizen in 2005, now coaches her son, Levan Onashvili, a member of the junior national archery team. She told the Huffington Post that finding the balance between being a mom, coach, and an Olympic athlete is not easy.

“You somehow get through,” she said. “You learn. You learn how to deal with it and you just keep going.”

Like any coach and athlete – or any mother and teenage son – Lorig said they sometimes get frustrated with each other.

“He’s trying hard,” she told Huffington Post. “It’s not easy for him. I’m the one who is coaching him, but I’m never home. Hopefully after the Olympics, I can have more time for him, to coach him.”

Khatuna Lorig placed fourth in the individual archery competition on Aug. 2, her fifth Olympic Games. Coming into the 2012 London Games, she was ranked second in the US and 15th in the world. In her fourth Olympic Games, Beijing in 2008, she won the silver medal and was also chosen by her teammates to carry the flag during the closing ceremony. She competed for Georgia in Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney in 2000.

Lorig won three US Open championships (2005, 2006, and 2007). She was also won the National Target competition in 2007 and 2012. In 2011, she helped the US team take second place in the Pan American Games.

Lorig also coached actress Jennifer Lawrence for her role in “The Hunger Games” movie.

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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