A record number of women are expected to be among athletes participating at the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, which have been pushed back one year because a number of circumstances.
More and more female athletes in recent years continue to compete even after entering motherhood. However, they are also facing the challenge of balancing competition and rearing children, and there is also the difficulty involved with setting up an environment that helps keep these athletes motivated.
The postponement of the Tokyo Games will have a major impact on all athletes, and some have been forced to retire. But Ai Yoshida, a competitor in the women's 470 class in sailing, had a different take on the delay.
Yoshida describes the kind of joy for competition that she would not be able to experience if she were not raising a child.
Sailing is a tough sport in which competitors race yachts in natural open-water conditions, and the 39-year-old is regarded as a medal hopeful at the Games next year.
"The first thing I thought was, 'I'm going to be in the Olympics when [her son] Rui is 4.' I thought, 'Maybe he'll always remember that about me."
Yoshida is doing her best to raise her son, who is about to turn 3. She faced the difficulty of training while taking care of her child during a state of emergency, which was declared amid the spread of the new coronavirus.
This was the first time she has experienced 24-hour childcare. She used to leave her son in the care of those close to her, mainly her mother, on training days.
One morning, when she was trying to sneak out for an early training ride on the bike, her son began crying. She said she couldn't make any headway in her workouts.
But Yoshida had a sense of fulfillment, saying, "It's a joy to be on hand and watch him grow up." Her hope is become stronger and that her son will remember her feats in sailing.
As top athletes are often away from home on domestic and international trips as well as training camps, assistance from family members and others in their support group is essential to find a balance between competition and child rearing.
Yukie Nakayama, a clay shooter, has been raising her daughter Mei with help from her parents. Now that her daughter is 18, the 41-year-old mother said, "All I can say to my parents is that I'm so sorry."
Clay shooters have long careers, so it is common in other countries for women to return to the sport after giving birth.
Meanwhile she was looked at oddly in Japan and openly criticized by women who say, "Too bad for your child." When her daughter was in kindergarten, she probably felt so lonely that she said, "I wish I had a mom like everyone else."
Nakayama can't give up, in part because she feels she has been sacrificing time with her daughter.
"I can't do it halfway. It's a mother's determination. I want to show her that I always stand up and battle, never giving up," she said.
Nakayama hopes to make a big leap at the Tokyo Games, which will be her fifth Olympics, if all goes well.
Now a college student, her daughter has told Nakayama, "You are the one and only for me, Mom."
"Had it not been for my daughter, I wouldn't have continued to compete until this age. I feel like my hard work has been rewarded," Nakayama said.
Wakako Tsuchida, a wheelchair in athletics and the paratriathlon, was on the verge of tears when she received a letter from her son on Mother's Day this year.
Tsuchida and her husband, who is also a coach, have been continuing to compete. Her son is a second-year junior high school student, and she has worked hard to balance her athletic career with raising a child and dealing with her disability. She now has a keen sense of the weight of those days.
"Maybe he was able to cultivate a sense of care for his family," the 45-year-old mother said.
Tsuchida said she considers it a blessing to be a mother and to be able to compete at the Tokyo Games with her support group as she views the upcoming Olympics as the "culmination" of her athlete career.
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
