This super mom-to-be is having the Olympic trials — and her baby, too.
Heptathlete Lindsay Flach was so set on competing in the US Olympic Track and Field trials, she refused to let the fact that she was 18 weeks pregnant stop her.
Her commitment and self-confidence paid off: Despite coming in a distant last of the 15 women who completed the seven-event race — in nearly 100-degree heat no less — her performance is now being lauded as one of the weekend’s most inspiring.
“I am blessed I could be a positive light and an inspiration to so many,” Flach, 31, captioned a Friday Instagram post of herself standing on the track, baby bump clearly. “Women you are amazing! Mommas you are #badass #strong #capable #loved.”
Flach was motivated to compete in what was her third and likely last Olympic trial by a desire for “closure for my track career before I moved on with life,” the caption continued. The pandemic put the kibosh on her plans to compete in the 2020 season, so her and her husband began trying for a child. She kept training in the meantime, and in March discovered she was pregnant.
“It was bittersweet,” she told Yahoo Sports. “I was really excited because I’ve always wanted kids, but it was also a shock knowing that just like that, my track career was over.”
Her doctor, however, gave her the green light to continue training so long as she listened carefully to her body and intensely avoided hard falls. “My big concern,” she told Yahoo Sports, “was making sure that I was healthy and the baby was healthy.”
She didn’t intend to make headlines for refusing to give up her Olympic dream.
“To be honest, I was going to the tryouts and I was trying to keep it on the down low, because I just wanted to finish my career on my terms,” Flach told TODAY Parents.
While she received some negative reactions from people who told her “Women shouldn’t do this when they’re pregnant. You’re being selfish. You’re taking someone else’s spot,” her friends and family were unanimously positive, and she knew she was being extremely cautious, so she pushed on, and completed it.
“It was hard mentally because I knew I wasn’t going to be able to compete at the level I was capable of 18 weeks ago, but I just wanted to prove what women are capable of,” Flach said. “To end one chapter and begin another on my terms was amazing.”