Breanna Stewart and the other moms on the US women’s basketball team are enjoying some special moments while chasing Olympic history.
In addition to trying to become the first Olympic team — male or female — to win eight consecutive gold medals, they are having a rare bonding experience at the Paris Games.
The Americans will play Australia on Friday in the semifinals, looking to extend the program’s winning streak to 60 straight games and reach Sunday’s gold medal game.
But they have an important appointment before the game: A birthday party Stewart’s daughter Ruby, who turns 3 on Friday.
“There’s a ton of kids with our Team USA group,” said Stewart, a two-time gold medalist. “So I’m sure we’ll find something fun. Very Paw Patrol-like, but it’ll just be a great day for her. And, you know, for us, we’ll just be continuing on our journey.
The Americans will play Australia on Friday in the semifinals, looking to extend the program’s winning streak to 60 straight games and reach Sunday’s gold medal game.
But they have an important appointment before the game: A birthday party Stewart’s daughter Ruby, who turns 3 on Friday.
“There’s a ton of kids with our Team USA group,” said Stewart, a two-time gold medalist. “So I’m sure we’ll find something fun. Very Paw Patrol-like, but it’ll just be a great day for her. And, you know, for us, we’ll just be continuing on our journey.”
These games are very different than the last Olympics. The 2021 Tokyo Games were held under strict pandemic protocols, and these women aren’t the only parents who’ve brought their children with them to Paris.
In Tokyo, the U.S. women’s basketball team had only two mothers on the team: Diana Taurasi and Skylar Diggins-Smith. Now there’s five parents: four moms and one “Pops” as two-time gold medalist Brittney Griner prefers to be called as the newest member with her wife giving birth to a boy just a couple weeks before the team headed to Europe.
This article originally appeared on AP News.