Kaleo Kanahele Maclay had just arrived at her hotel room in Tokyo when she decided to take a pregnancy test. It was days before she'd compete with Team USA in sitting volleyball at the 2020 Paralympic Games, which finally took place in August 2021. Her and her husband were trying for a second baby, and they waited an extra year when the games were postponed.
"I kind of had a feeling, so I was like, 'I will just bring some pregnancy tests with me and we'll see when we get there when I feel like I can take a breath,'" she tells What to Expect. "I took [the test] a little bit before I ate breakfast that morning and then came back to the room before practice and saw that I was pregnant."
Maclay was beyond grateful for the news — before this positive test she experienced an ectopic pregnancy, and she didn't know if she would be able to get pregnant again. She had a video call with her husband to share the news, and then she was off to practice to tell her coaches. After the Team USA medical team brought her for an ultrasound and gave her the all-clear, her next challenge began: competing on the world's stage early in her first trimester.
"I just felt so grateful to be pregnant and grateful that I was going to be able to do it with Kai with me," she says. "And then I started to have morning sickness right before our finals match but got through most of it, thankfully."
The women's sitting volleyball team went on to take home the gold, defeating rival China.
Born with a clubbed left foot, Maclay began competing in sitting volleyball in 2010 and has represented Team USA in three Paralympic Games.
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Now, she's heading to Paris with her biggest cheerleaders: her two sons, Duke, 6, and Kai, now 2.
"My mom, my sister, my husband and our two kids are going to come," she shares. "Duke is going to come the whole time and Kai is going to come a little later. But they'll be there at the games, so I'm really excited."
When Maclay first got pregnant with Duke, she didn't know if she'd even continue competing. "I didn't know what it would look like," she says. "It was hard at first because being an athlete, you're so used to your body operating in one way and there's this misconception that your body has to go back to normal [after a pregnancy]," she says. "For me, just acknowledging that my body will continue to change is powerful and beautiful. I've become stronger because of my two kids."
Maclay credits the communication skills she's learned from volleyball for helping her become a better parent. "[With my teammates and coaches] there is necessary communication with coordinating life things, but also being able to be open and transparent about the things that you're going through," she says. "With my kids, they see me cry, they see me stress. My kids see the behind-the-scenes of what being an athlete looks like. For me, it's really just about being open and showing them what openness looks like."
With this year's games, she hopes to inspire those watching: "I'm not only setting an example for other moms, but I'm setting an example for my sons of what women can do while they're pregnant or while they're wanting to have children."
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