Olympic gold medalist: ‘Being a mom is my secret weapon’

Three-time Olympic Gold Medalist Kristin Armstrong recently shared with a local news affiliate the key to her success — motherhood.

“Being a mom was actually my secret weapon,” she told Idaho Today host Mellisa Paul. “No matter how my day went, I had this little one smiling back at me. Kids remind you of what’s really important.”

Armstrong (no relation to Lance Armstrong) has competed as a cyclist in four different Olympic games beginning in 2004 in Athens, followed by Beijing, London, and Rio de Janeiro. In 2012, she suffered a collarbone injury, and people told her that they didn’t think she could come back from it. But, she said, “I had to control my controllable.” Every day, she woke up with the goal of doing her best.

“Luckily I had a lot of experience under my belt by that time and I think that injury and setbacks are a part of the journey because if you’re not having those injuries and setbacks, it’s not normal,” she said. She added that these setbacks help develop your character. Motherhood helped her to succeed as well.

“[When] I was pregnant in the middle of my journey, I had a child prior to the London games, and I think that a lot of people felt sorry for me when I came back,” she said. “Because ‘Oh my goodness, you have so much going on. You’re a mom. How do you balance it?’ All kinds of this negative: ‘I can’t believe this!'”

Paul added, “Like it’s a burden.”

Armstrong continued, “What people didn’t realize [was] that it was my secret weapon because when I came home, no matter [if] it was a good or bad day on the bike, I just had this little one smiling at me and, actually, Lucas didn’t care, right? He didn’t really care how my bike ride went. And so it really put things in perspective and so the stress and all that I put into the bike each and every day when I didn’t have Lucas, it kind of just wore on me and it really just hung until my next ride. But when you show up and you have this little human being and you love him so much… all of that goes away until your next ride and it’s gonna be better because that’s just a small part of your life.”

In addition to being an Olympic gold medalist and mom, Armstrong is also a business owner. She opened Pivot Lifestyle + Fitness centers in Idaho to help other people have the opportunity to keep moving and be active so they can live their best lives.

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