Beneath the Peak of Zebulon Pike in July of 1995, Dawn Coe-Jones was breathing laboriously.
The Canadian-born professional golfer was just one shot off the LPGA U.S. Open lead. She was walking the hills of the Broadmoor Country Club — at altitude.
And she was more than six months pregnant.
Coe-Jones tired over the weekend and finished tied for seventh behind a young, rather unknown Annika Sorenstam.
“I didn’t want to give birth in a bunker,” Coe-Jones said.
James Richard Coe-Jones was born in a hospital, not a sand trap, in October. He is 12 now, and his mom says she prefers to watch him in a hockey tournament than play in a golf tournament.
Dawn Coe-Jones is one of the prominent Mothers of Sport.
This is their day.
Combining motherhood and sports is a break-taking challenge.
Joy Fawcett is a true Soccer Mom.
She is the only player in U.S. national women’s soccer team history to play every minute of its 1995, 1999 and 2002 World Cup matches and in the 1996 and 2002 Summer Olympics.
During that span Fawcett gave birth to three daughters.
Gail Devers qualified for the 1988 Olympics in the 100 meters, but began to suffer migraines during training. She was eliminated in the semifinals. Two years later Devers was diagnosed with Graves’ Disease.
At the 1992 Games she won the 100 meters in a photo finish, but miraculously returned to the Olympics in 1996 to repeat in the 100 and also medal in the 400 relay.
She gave up competing in 2005 to have a child, but returned to competition in 2006. Last year Devers ran the best 60-meter hurdles time in the world.
At 14, Josee Auclair was selected a member of Canada’s cross country ski team and won four national titles. In 2001 she led the first all-women’s team to ski from Russia to the North Pole. Last year Auclair and three other women skiers completed an expedition across the Antarctic to the South Pole.
She paused twice in an incredible career to have sons Tessum and Nansen.
Lisa Leslie was the first player to dunk in the WNBA.
She also was the league’s MVP (three times) and was a three-time Summer Olympics gold medalist on the Women’s Dream Team. In between games, Leslie earned her master’s degree and worked as a fashion model, an actress and a TV analyst.
She also went on maternity leave for the 2007 season. Leslie and husband Michael Lockwood, a pilot and former Air Force Academy player, brought Lauren into the world 10 months ago. The 35-year- old Leslie came back to the WNBA and will play in the Beijing Olympics.
Sheryl Swoopes also won the three Olympic gold medals as Leslie’s teammate in 1996-2000-2004 and was named MVP after three WNBA seasons. She gave birth in 1998, divorced a year later and revealed in 2005 that she is a lesbian. Swoopes and partner Alisa Scott help raise her son Jordan.
Vonetta Flowers’ childhood dream in Alabama was to make the U.S. Summer Olympics team. However, after two failures, Flowers qualified, as a brakewoman, for the duo bobsled event at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City. She became the first African-American to win a gold medal in the Winter Olympics.
Shortly after, Flowers found out she was pregnant, left the sport, then had twins. But she returned to bobsledding in 2004, won a bronze medal at the world championships and finished sixth at the 2006 Olympics before retiring.
Lindsay Davenport has been the top-ranked women’s tennis player four different years. She has earned more than $22 million, advanced to the finals of all four majors and won singles titles at the U.S. Open, Australian Open and Wimbledon. She is a three-time doubles champion in majors and owns an Olympic gold medal.
Davenport stepped away from the tour and had a baby boy last June 10. Following the birth, she returned to win her first singles title since 2005. And she will play for the U.S. at the Olympics.
British long-distance runner Paula Radcliffe has set 10 world records, been No. 1 in the world and received the Order of the British Empire. She has won marathons in London and Chicago. Radcliffe had her first child in 2006. She won the New York Marathon in November 2007.
Susan Butcher studied veterinarian care at Colorado State, then moved to Alaska because of her love of dogsled racing. She won the Iditarod in 1986 and became only the second four-time champion in 1990.
She has been called the Mother of Dogsledding. Butcher competed alongside her husband David Monson in dog races all over the world, but managed to have daughters Tekla and Chisana. She died in 2006 of leukemia.
Ed and Blanche Rudolph, of Clarksville, Tenn., had 22 children. Wilma was No. 20 in 1940. At 4, Wilma was diagnosed with polio. She beat the crippling disease and was the first American woman to win three gold medals in track and field at an Olympics. She finished first in Rome in 1960 in the 100, the 200 and the 400 relay.
Two years earlier Rudolph gave birth to the first (Yolanda) of four children.
In 1994 Rudolph died of brain cancer. She was the all-time sprinter of sprinters and the mother of mothers.
Rudolph and the other women athletes accomplished what no male athlete can and will. Happy Mother’s Day.
Woody Paige: 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com
