Alysia Montaño: The Pregnant Runner

We sat down with Alysia Montaño on set for our 2026 Changemakers campaign. An Olympic bronze medalist known as "the pregnant runner" for competing eight months pregnant at USA Nationals, Alysia has spent the years since building For All Mothers+, a nonprofit pushing sports - and society - toward a gold standard of care for mother-athletes.

Introduce yourself - what's your name, and where would people know you from?

My name is Alysia Montaño. I'm an Olympic bronze medalist. People probably know me best as "the pregnant runner" - I was eight months pregnant at USA Nationals as the five-time defending champion, fighting for moms.

When you ran eight months pregnant at USA Nationals, did you know in that moment that you were starting a movement?

I wasn't quite sure that I was starting a movement, but I was hopeful that I would create conversation in that moment. I knew that it was so important for the invisible labor that mothers face all the time - in fighting for their lives and their opportunities to thrive - to be made visible, and I knew that I had an opportunity to do that.

Your advocacy helped push Nike to change its pregnancy policies. Where do you think we are on the culture side of change, versus policy?

It did push for Nike and other big companies to change their policies to better support mothers in sports. But it wasn't just about sports - it was about creating an opportunity for us to really see how society has created so many barriers for mothers, not only to expand their families, but to continue their careers and grow in them. Now I see the opportunity we've had, using sports as a microcosm of what's happening in the world, to influence the importance of having our support structures be the gold standard for care by creating the infrastructure for moms.

Because if we take care of the moms, then we take care of everyone else.

Your research found that 73% of mothering athletes experience a decrease, pause, or termination of funding related to pregnancy or motherhood. How did those findings make you feel?

We did research with my nonprofit organization, For All Mothers+, to really understand what the landscape has actually looked like for mothers who are athletes in their careers, and we found that 73% of athletes faced a decrease in funding from their sponsors, or a complete termination altogether. For me, what it really spoke to was the stark difference across all industries, and the changes we need to make happen. It also emphasized the need to push toward policies that weren't just going to take care of the athletes - they were going to use our podium moments as a podium moment for all mothers.

When we ask mothers what they actually need, what the barriers are that they're actually facing, we find that if we could make changes like better, safer lactation accommodations, the ability to transport their milk, opportunities to have their families on the sidelines with them, and the ability to continue their career growth - we knew that if we could do that in sport, we could do it anywhere.

If For All Mothers+ achieves everything you're building toward, what does the world look like for the next generation of mother-athletes?

I will know that we have achieved that gold standard when we look across the aisle and see moms in all industries showing up to work with smiles on their faces. When we see their kids and their families accepted in the spaces they're in. When we see women in leadership positions, in C-suites, and they also have their families.

But not only that - when we see women have choice, whether to embark on motherhood or not, because they're able to be informed on their choices, and they're not being forced to choose because the opportunities aren't there for them if they do become moms. At the end of the day, I'd love to see women cared for the choices they get to make, not forced into them.

What surprised you most about becoming a mother?

I think just my ability to adapt. Being a mom, you have to be malleable, you have to be stretchable - you can't be so rigid, or you'll find that it won't be an enjoyable experience. I really enjoyed that process, and was proud of myself for taking it head-on and taking motherhood as it came.

It allowed me to put more tools in my toolbox for other places I would go, where motherhood was going to be my value add - my superpower in other arenas, whether I was speaking at a keynote or racing on the track. I now had this opportunity to see my life in a way where things don't have to go 100% as I thought, but I could still come out with a wonderful outcome.

What do you love most about being a mom?

I really love being a mom - I'm the worst with favorites, but one of the things I love most is just recognizing my opportunity to grow every single day. Kids humble you. They're so honest, so real, so raw. Being a mom has allowed me the opportunity to continue to evolve, and to recognize the beauty in that.

What does rest mean to you, as someone whose whole identity has been built around movement?

Rest is completely underrated. There's this idea that athletes take no days off - people love the hashtag #NoDaysOff - but rest is a part of growth. Everything in nature goes dormant one time or another, and it allows it to bloom more fully. Rest allows me to come into a new space more fresh, more excited, and gives me a better opportunity to continue to pollinate. If I didn't allow myself the opportunity to rest, I'd be putting myself in a scenario where I wouldn't be able to continue to evolve, expand, change, grow, and pollinate others.

What does the first 10 minutes of your morning actually look like right now?

It's the calm before the storm. I have 11-, 8-, and 6-year-olds, so asking me this two years ago would have gotten a completely different answer, but I do get a chance to open my eyes just a second before the kids. I don't try to spring out of bed - I allow myself a second to just be grateful, and to appreciate that I woke up and have another opportunity to seize the day. Then I ground myself, purposefully.

I appreciate that beginning because it's going to get real loud and wild really fast. Every time you think you've got it figured out, you're about to get humbled - someone's going to be fighting over a toy, someone's going to have opinions about breakfast, someone's going to want to do it themselves. Either you laugh or you cry, and I'm choosing to laugh through it.

What are you most hopeful about for the future of motherhood?

We've come so far just in the time since I wrote my New York Times op-ed - that was "Nike told me to dream crazy, until I had a baby." Since starting For All Mothers+ in 2020, I've seen brands and organizations get behind our work in helping implement maternal protections and policies that better support moms in the workplace. The future of motherhood is one where mothers are exactly where they are in society, and they are respected as the leaders that they are.

What does being a Changemaker mean to you?

Being a Changemaker is an absolute honor. When I really look at my legacy, and where I've come from, I think about my grandma, and I think about my mom, and I recognize that our children are our parents' best dream - our goal is to help their dreams come true as we make our own dreams come true. What I've recognized in this opportunity is that I'm continuing to leave a legacy that blazes a trail for the next generation, to leave the landscape better than they found it, and to help them walk into it in a really great place.

Read more about the Changemakers here.