© Matthias Hangst via Getty Images Kikkan Randall celebrates with her son, Breck, during a medal ceremony in Finland last year.

 

The 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, are officially underway. This year, 244 athletes will compete for Team USA.  Among them are 21 parents ― 20 fathers and just one mother, cross-country skier Kikkan Randall.

Randall has been skiing since she was a year old. She made her Olympic debut at 19 at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, and later competed at the games in Turin, Vancouver and Sochi. In 2007, she became the first American woman to win a World Cup title in cross-country skiing.

In April 2016, Randall and her husband, Jeff Ellis, welcomed their first child, a baby boy named Breck. And this month she’ll compete in her fifth Winter Olympics.

HuffPost spoke to Randall shortly after she arrived in South Korea this week to learn more about her experience returning to skiing after pregnancy, balancing parenthood with training, and embarking on her fifth Olympic Games.