On Sunday, we celebrated Mother’s Day sending a special “thank you” to all the mums that served as an example to fellow women in sport and in normal life too. Through the years, a number of athletes proved that motherhood can indeed be no obstacle in their careers, but one of the most precious wins in them.

It is to them that we dedicate this chapter of our journey into the archive of our video productions and it is a very fitting day to do it, because May 15th is also the International Day of Families. We often talk about the Biathlon Family and the importance of such a community in our sport, but these women, with their example, inspired fellow athletes in this sport and beyond.

For example, Weronika Nowakowska made no secret that not only she was inspired by Marie Dorin Habert’s example, but she talked to her in the lead to becoming a mother, without losing the athlete’s focus on her career goals. Even when she found out she was expecting twins, she did not let the situation overwhelm her. A few months after this interview, she took one of her career best results in the BMW IBU World Cup pursuit of Oberhof, where she shot her first ever 20/20 for a 4th place.

Selina Gasparin pushed it even further and just like Anastasiya Kuzmina, she became a mother twice and twice came back to biathlon with great results. The first ever Swiss woman to medal in biathlon compared the two pregnancies and how the first experience helped her into planning and training throughout her second. This year, she even got back to the podium in the BMW IBU World Cup tour, both with the relay and individually.

So, happy International Day of Families to all the special mums that made biathlon such an exciting sport, inspiring to many, and to that fathers too! And why not, to the whole Biathlon Family, because we enjoy being in it.