Triumph over trials: Chelsea Sodaro on motherhood, mental health, and winning the Kona Ironman World Championships
The American, who won the 2022 Kona Ironman World Championship title, told Olympics.com about her challenges with anxiety and what being a mother means to her as an elite triathlete.
Triathlon
Chelsea Sodaro is not like any normal mother to a toddler.
The American is the reigning Ironman triathlon world champion. That meant far from simply watching her daughter Skylar grow up, the 34-year-old has had to consider her baby's needs alongside being an elite athlete.
"I think there is a lot of pressure on mums, especially in this country in the U.S.," Sodaro told Olympics.com in an exclusive interview ahead of her title defence in Kona, Hawaii, on Saturday (14 October 2023).
"There's a lot of social pressures to be perfect and to show up for your kids in a certain way, and I have had a lot of guilt, a lot of mum guilt with balancing my career and showing up for my kid."
It is a common thread among athlete mothers: how to both be present for a newborn or toddler while having your athletic career in mind, instead of retiring.
"I felt like very much a postpartum athlete for most of the year (2021 into 2022)," the American shared. "I think what I missed out on a lot is the recovery. I'm going right from a five-mile ride to the park with my kid, because I want to be there for her.
"I don't want to miss out on the family stuff, whereas most of my competitors are probably like going back to bed and taking a nap. It can be really hard to balance both things to feel like you're being successful in both," she admitted.
"I think I'm just getting to a place now where I'm maybe a little more confident in who I am as a mum."
Chelsea Sodaro: Battling anxiety and mental health
When Sodaro won at Kona in 2022, in a time of 8 hours 33 minutes 45 seconds, not many knew about the challenges she had faced just to get to the start line.
While the news she had an 18-month-old toddler at home was known, her internal demons were not. Indeed, after her victory, most of the attention Sodaro received was for having been able to succeed on her World Championships debut while being a relatively new mother.
"Because of my family situation and because how public it was, it sort of transcended triathlon and it was really rewarding in that sense that, you know, it touched a lot of people," Sodaro remembered.
"A lot of people felt or could see themselves in that performance, and it made them dream bigger and think that there was more for them in their athletic career after having kids, that childbirth and pregnancy aren't the kiss of death for an athletic career but rather a starting point."
However, deep down, something wasn't right. Even as she took in all the plaudits for her achievement, Sodaro was struggling with what she now recognises has been a life-long affliction with anxiety disorder.
"If I am kind of reflective on my life, it's probably always been there at some level, but I just called it like stress," she admitted. "I think it's not until I had my daughter where I became very aware of how that was impacting the people around me and how I wasn't able to show up for her in the way that I wanted to."
The toll it was taking on her away from sport was untold. It manifested as a severe fear of public spaces due to the idea that a mass shooting might take place.
"That started to become really challenging for me when I was towards the end of my pregnancy and early on in my daughter's life. We have a horrific problem (with mass shootings) in the U.S.; ultimately I was diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder and how that was manifesting for me was this fear.
"That's what my particular obsession was. And when you have obsessive compulsive disorder like that, intrusive thought like evolves into other things being hard."
Chelsea Sodaro celebrates with her daughter Skylar after winning the 2022 Ironman World Championships in Kona
Chelsea Sodaro: An Ironman champion who reached out for help
Having lived with anxiety disorder for her whole life, Sodaro originally thought she could ride out the latest flare-up. But the effects it was having on those around her convinced her otherwise.
"At first I just tried to… I had a really hard time getting any sort of mental health help," she confessed. "I tried to white knuckle it and it wasn't until, November or December of 2022, I actually was able to get real help with that."
Speaking openly about her demons, she said, was a natural thing. With mental health increasingly an open discussion among athletes as well as in day-to-day life, there was no reason to hide.
"I hope it shows people that kind of no level of success makes you immune to like mental health problems and that it's okay not to be okay," Sodaro said.
"The most important thing is that you get help and you reach out when you're struggling. Mental health is health. And at least for me, in order for me to be at my best and perform at the highest level, I need to be a healthy, happy person."
With daughter Skylar already two-and-a-half years old, Sodaro says she has found a balance, albeit with the understanding that it may not last.
"I think I'm in a really good place," she shared. "I think I have a level of acceptance, though these are things that I'll probably be dealing with my whole life. I don't think there's a cure.
"It's rather just like managing it and having the right people around me and like doing the work to make sure that I'm in a good place."
And being in a good place is also positive for her triathlon performance.
"I really just want to, like, enjoy the journey and continue to improve. I think I have a lot of a lot of work to do and a lot of things to improve on," Sodaro reflected.
"My plan is really just to focus on the day-to-day of getting the most out of myself."