Aliphine Tuliamuk petitioning to have daughter at Olympics

With the Olympics just over two months away, the 2021 Tokyo Games are shaping up to be very different from Olympics in years past. Amoung the many protocols that have been implemented to ensure COVID-19 safety, perhaps the most significant is a ban on international spectators. Not only does this mean that athletes’ friends and families cannot be in Tokyo to support them, but for female athletes with infant children, it means they must leave their babies at home. This has put some athletes in a difficult spot, including Aliphine Tuliamuk, who gave birth to her first child in January and will be representing the United States in the marathon.

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In an interview with the Washington Post, Tuliamuk explained that leaving her four-month-old daughter at home for a week to run in the Olympic marathon is not something she can fathom. Currently, her training days are structured around her breastfeeding schedule for her baby girl, Zoe, and she hasn’t spent more than three hours apart from her since the day she was born.

“If I’m going to perform my best, she’s going to have to be there with me — and I hope she will be,” she said.

Tuliamuk has petitioned to allow her fiance, Tim Gannon, and little Zoe to accompany her to the Games, but with so little time before the Olympics are set to begin, she still doesn’t know whether her request will be approved. At this point, Tuliamuk has not issued an ultimatum but is still holding out hope that an exception will be made for her situation. While she is likely the runner with the youngest child set to compete in the Games, she is not the only athlete who is facing this difficult decision.

Tennis star Serena Williams has already said that if she were forced to leave her three-year-old daughter, Olympia, behind, she would skip the Tokyo Games. Soccer player Alex Morgan has also said that she’s not sure what she will do if she’s forced to leave her one-year-old daughter at home.

Nine-time Olympic medallist, Allyson Felix, who gave birth to her daughter Camryn in 2018, said in an interview that her child was the “driving force” behind her pursuit to make her fifth Olympic Games, and that she had always pictured her daughter being there in the stands. As much as she wants her there, however, she stated that mothers with babies should be given first priority.

“I would be most sensitive to moms who are breastfeeding,” she said. “I know for me, when I competed when Cammy was under a year old — you need to be near your child.”

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Currently, the government of Japan has banned visitors from 159 countries, including Canada and the U.S., except under “special exceptional circumstances.” According to the IOC, any requests by athletes to bring their children will have to be handled by each country’s individual Olympic committees, and anyone who is permitted to attend the Games would have to be given status as an official delegation. This means that a country’s Olympic committee would have to remove someone from their already-shortened credentials list for each child or partner who is added. It also means that everyone — including Zoe — will be subject to the strict COVID-19 testing protocols that will be in place at the Games. Tuliamuk is still holding out hope, and has said she is grateful to everyone who is trying so hard to make this work.

“I’m just not ready to leave her behind,” she says.

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