When Femita Ayanbeku lined up for the 100 meters at the 2024 US Paralympic Team Trials for Track & Field in July, she had a number in mind: 13.01 seconds. That mark, she knew, would assure her a spot on the Paralympic team headed to Paris.
She’d run faster in the past. In fact, three years ago, she set the American record of 12.84 seconds in the T64 classification, for athletes with a below-the-knee amputation who compete with a prosthesis. But at this year’s Trials, she was lining up just six months after giving birth to her daughter, Nailah.
The gun went off, and Ayanbeku pushed hard, crossing the finish line in first place. She waited, briefly, for the announcer to say her time. When she heard it—13.01 seconds on the dot—she doubled over, crying with joy and relief.
“So many people thought I wasn’t going to be able to do it,” Ayanbeku, 32, tells SELF. The tears kept flowing during her post-race TV interview, especially as her fiancé Dexter Bradley brought Nailah over for her to hold. “But I was able to do it—and have her there to see it.”
Now Ayanbeku will head to her third Games to pursue her first Paralympic medal. Here’s what you should know about the superstar mom before she takes to the track for the 100 meters in Paris. Watch her in action on September 5 for the first round, with the final on September 6.
1. She didn’t start running until she was 23.
Ayanbeku grew up outside Boston in Randolph, Massachusetts, and didn’t consider herself particularly athletic as a child. When she was 11, she lost her right leg in a car accident; she was thrown from a fast-moving vehicle, and doctors had to amputate it to save her life. During her freshman year of high school, she tried to follow in her older sister’s footsteps and play basketball, but her prosthetic leg gave her blisters and she quit after a few months. “I played for like three months, then never again,” she says.
It wasn’t until 2015 that her prosthetist suggested she go to a running clinic through the Challenged Athletes Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to adaptive sports. There she received an Össur brand running blade and met Jerome Singleton, a sprinter and three-time Paralympian. He saw something in her and introduced her to his coach, Sherman Hart, and the two agreed to start working together.
After a few meets where she held her own against nondisabled athletes, Ayanbeku competed at the US Paralympic Team Trials for Track & Field in 2016. She clocked a time of 13.44 seconds to win the 100 meters and placed second in the 200 meters in 28.41 seconds. That earned her a spot at the Paralympic Games in Rio, where she placed 12th in the 100 meters and sixth in the 200 meters.
Afterward, she returned to her alma mater—American International College in Springfield, Massachusetts—for homecoming. “The track coach was like, ‘Why didn’t you run for us when you were here?’” Ayanbeku says. “I was like, ‘I didn’t even know I could run!’ It was definitely a surprise to everyone, even myself.”
2. She won a national championship while pregnant.
Since then, Ayanbeku has won seven more national titles. Though she didn’t know it at the time, Nailah was with her for the most recent. When she counted back later on, Ayanbeku realized she was about three weeks along when she won the T64 100 meters at the 2023 US Paralympics Track & Field National Championships in May 2023.
While she’d always wanted to be a mom, the timing wasn’t exactly planned. “When we found out I was pregnant, I was very excited,” she says. “The second thing I thought about was—next year is the Paralympics.” When doctors told her her due date was in January, she realized she’d have six months after her daughter was born to train for the Trials in June. “I think I can make this work,” she remembers thinking.
3. She kept training as long as she could, with modifications.
The tight timeline meant Ayanbeku would have to work hard both before and after birth. She kept training throughout her pregnancy, though she tweaked her routine based on her doctor’s and coach’s advice. She dialed back the intensity, running on the treadmill or grassy fields rather than sprinting on the track, and took more and longer rest breaks to bring her heart rate down while running or between sets of strength training exercises in the gym.
Fortunately, the birth experience went smoothly for both mother and daughter. Afterward, Ayanbeku took about four full weeks off, then eased back into gentle motion with the okay from her doctor. She didn’t touch the track again until May, and when she did, “I felt like I had jelly legs.”
But Hart reassured her that her hard work would pay off and her muscle memory would take over. “I didn’t believe him at first,” she says. “It felt like it was going to take forever. But I stayed consistent, and slowly but surely, it started to come back.”
None of it was easy. She frequently took Nailah to the gym and the track, sometimes squatting her in the carrier. When her motivation dipped, Ayanbeku thought of the message she wanted to send her daughter. “I never want her to feel I had to give up anything. I want her to know that I’m very happy she’s here, and I’m still determined to do the things I wanted to do,” she says.
4. Breastfeeding while racing was a bit of an adjustment.
Her first race back, Ayanbeku had fed Nailah just 10 minutes before the gun went off. She didn’t snack afterward, taking only a few sips of water pre-race. When she attempted to run at full speed, she felt completely drained.
So she worked to develop a schedule and routine that meets her fueling needs and the baby’s. “Now I know I need to pump and/or feed her two hours before, and then I’ll have an Ensure and a banana and a granola bar, and then some water and a Powerade,” she says. “It was a trial and error type of deal.”
5. Allyson Felix and Alysia Montaño are her role models.
Both of these track superstars made definitive statements about pregnancy and motherhood. Montaño competed while pregnant at not one but two national championships, in 2014 and 2017. And Felix, the most decorated female Olympian in track and field, returned to the sport and competed at a high level for three more years after her first daughter, Camryn, was born.
Afterward, both have become activists pushing for more support for female athletes in general and moms in particular. In fact, Felix pushed to have a nursery in the Olympic and Paralympic Village so athletes and their families could spend time with their children.
If she hadn’t, Ayanbeku isn’t sure she would have worked to qualify. “Breastfeeding is very important to me, and I don’t know that I would have decided to go to Paris and have to leave formula for my daughter if she wasn’t going to be able to be there with me,” she says. “Those two women definitely kept me inspired and motivated to feel like you can be a mom and you can be an athlete. You don’t have to sacrifice one for the other.”
Jodie Grinham added a few extra elements to her training routine to account for a surprise kick or two.
Ayanbeku also received a grant from Montaño’s foundation, &Mother, as well as one from the Scout Bassett Fund to help cover costs for things like training and travel. “Going to Paris and getting ready for Trials and everything like that, it’s been a journey, and there’s always a financial need,” she says. “These foundations being able to support people like me has been very helpful.” She also has sponsorships from Össur and Natixis Investment Managers, a Boston-based financial firm.
6. She modeled for Victoria’s Secret.
In 2022, the brand famous for its fashion shows launched a campaign called “Undefinable”: “reinforcing that beauty was always for the individual to define.” Ayanbeku was one of several models and the only amputee to pose. The next year, she went to an event for the brand’s “The Tour ’23” movie, where she walked the “pink carpet” in a stunning lime bra top and skirt, with a visible baby bump.
7. Her nonprofit once partnered with nail salons on discounted pedicures.
Before her athletic career took off, Ayanbeku started a nonprofit, Limb-it-less Creations, to raise awareness and provide support for amputees. One of her favorite campaigns was working with a local nail salon to offer half-priced pedicures for amputees. Not only was the price fairer—after all, they only have half the toes!—it also helped amputees identify welcoming businesses. “A lot of amputees have insecurities about going to nail salons,” she says. “It’s a comfort thing.”
8. Having Nailah changed her timeline for retirement.
Ayanbeku had high hopes heading into Tokyo, but injuries and a case of COVID interfered with her training. She placed ninth in the 200 meters and 11th in the 100 meters. Since then, she knew she wanted one more chance at a medal, but planned to step away from the sport after Paris.
Now, though, she aims to keep competing and to make it to her fourth Paralympics in Los Angeles in four years. At that point, she’ll be 36 and Nailah will be four—old enough to walk, talk, and hopefully form memories. “My daughter will have been able to see me do my thing, and then I can leave and feel at peace,” she says.
SELF is your go-to source for all things Paralympics. Follow our coverage of the Paris Games here.
Related:
- Paralympic Archer Jodie Grinham Just Competed While 7 Months Pregnant
- It Shouldn’t Be This Expensive to Be a Paralympic Athlete
- Zakia Khudadadi Just Became the First Athlete From the Refugee Paralympic Team to Win a Medal
Get more of SELF’s great sports coverage delivered right to your inbox—for free.
