Former Olympic and world 400m champion Shaunae Miller-Uibo talks to Cathal Dennehy about returning to the track as a mother, targeting her speed and having fun while pushing her limits

In late May, when Shaunae Miller-Uibo was midway through an early-season trip to China to compete in two Diamond Leagues, the two-time Olympic 400m champion posted a video of herself training. It showed the 32-year-old striding across the track with long, elegant strides, covering ground with seemingly effortless grace. 

It’s been almost four years since Miller-Uibo won her last global title – 400m gold at the World Championships in Oregon – and since then she’s taken significant time out of the sport. But she’s looking more and more like her old, brilliant self.

She gave birth to her son in 2023 and her daughter in 2025. The comebacks were tricky each time, with Miller-Uibo understandably well off her best initially as she rebuilt fitness and dealt with various setbacks.

But this season, she looks to have turned a corner. Miller-Uibo finished second in the 200m at the Diamond Leagues in Keqiao and Xiamen, clocking 22.26 and 22.04. And as for that training video? PJ Vazel, an athletics statistician and elite coach, was especially impressed with her sprint mechanics, the Frenchman reposting it and writing that Miller-Uibo wasn’t just back, she was better.

It took her a mountain of work to get to this point.

“The body changes after childbirth,” she says. “Strengthening me up in the right spots is so important. It did take a while to come back and I'm still playing around and just getting back to that level. I wouldn't like to say I like perfection, but I like to get as close as I could, especially when it comes to technique. It's been a lot of work and a lot of patience.”

By 2022, when she and her husband Maicel – a world decathlon silver medallist for Estonia – decided to start a family, Miller-Uibo had already won it all: Olympics, World Championships, World Indoors. She was 28 and felt she would have many great years of competing after returning from maternity leave.

“I wasn’t terrified of the decision I made, I knew I could come back stronger,” she says. “It’s just about coming out there, staying focused and making sure I get the job done. The positive thing with the community is, I've seen women do it before. There were a lot of female athletes that had children and came back to the sport.”

One of those she looked up to was Nia Ali, the US sprint hurdler who, as a mother of two, came back to win the world 100m hurdles title in 2019. Having given birth to a third child in 2021, Ali returned in 2022 and set her lifetime best of 12.30 in 2023, aged 34.

“Immediately after I got pregnant first, I reached out to her,” says Miller-Uibo. “I was like: ‘I’m going to need all the advice I can get.’”

How has motherhood shifted her perspective and her routine?

“Life changed,” says Miller-Uibo. “I'm a lot more intentional with my time. Before, I was a sleeper so any little chance that I’d get, I’d take a nap. But now it's making sure I'm focused when I’m at the track and making sure I’m getting done what I need to get done, and then put back on my Mom hat and making sure I’m intentional with being focused on my kids.”

She and her husband went back and forth over whether to raise their children in the Bahamas or Estonia but settled on the Bahamian capital Nassau. “I won,” laughs Miller-Uibo.

Having been based in the US for many years, it was a return to her roots, with the bonus of having “a lot of helping hands” for childcare. Miller-Uibo is again now coached by her father, Shaun, who had steered her career in her youth.

“It’s great to have [the children] back at home, learning their roots,” she says. “Seeing them growing up there, it's been a blessing. I always say there’s no place like home. I truly enjoy it and the facilities are there for us to use.”

In 2023, just 10 weeks after giving birth to Maicel Jr., Miller-Uibo lined up at the Bahamian nationals. The following month, she raced at the World Championships in Budapest, clocking 52.65 in the 400m heats.

“It wasn't even a thought,” she says of the swift comeback. “It was something that I just clicked with and got back into training. But it worked out for the best.”

She made an even more impressive comeback after her second child, clocking 51 seconds for 400m on three occasions last year. “Obviously I didn't need too much of a break. But to be able to keep it moving last season, I think it helped to prepare me for this season.”

The focus in 2026? “Building the speed back,” she says. “I haven’t touched speed for a long time. Even before the kids, [there were] a few injuries here and there so I haven’t really been able to tap into it. This season, we’re back fully healthy and the main thing is to get the speed back and go from there.”

Staying healthy is “always a challenge”, she admits. “But we worked really hard this season, especially in the gym. I was just making sure we build everything back up strong. From childbirth, there's some sort of strength that I get from it, physical strength, that I just can't explain.

“I think all of that is just coming together for me. My body feels a lot stronger, mentally I’m a lot stronger, so I'm just hoping to push my goals even further.”

She often takes her kids to the track when she trains and, with parents like theirs, are they showing an affinity for athletics? “My daughter, she’s a little bit lazy,” laughs Miller-Uibo. “But my son is full of energy. He loves to run, he loves to jump. He’s more of that outdoor kid.”

Miller-Uibo doesn’t have plans to compete at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, with this season viewed as a platform on which to build for greater things in 2027 and 2028. She will be 34 at the time of the next Olympics and the thought of competing in Los Angeles, with her family in the stands, is one that fuels her.

“I’ll have my kids there with me this time so I think it's going to be so much more special,” she says. “I'm expecting big things.”

Allyson Felix will be 42 when the Games begin in LA and the US star – who Miller-Uibo edged to victory in the 2016 Olympic 400m final – announced in April that she was coming out of retirement in a bid to compete there. “It's so inspirational,” says Miller-Uibo. “I hope it all goes well for her. I totally understand it is at home for her, so [I’m] wishing her all the best for that.”

Now that Miller-Uibo has gone through maternity leave twice, what advice would she give female athletes who are considering it?

“Just don't be afraid of it,” she says. “Growing up, we always had that fear of what-if. They've always told us that that was just the end of our career when we get pregnant. But don’t give up on your dreams. We’ve seen it over and over with so many women who have come back and gotten personal bests and so my advice is, live your life and be happy with your decisions, and know that you’re going to come back even stronger.”

Miller-Uibo has already summited the sport’s highest peaks. Continuing until LA in 2028 is clearly not something she needs to do. But it’s what she wants to do.

“Beforehand, it was about the titles and the medals and bear in mind I still want those things,” she says. “But I’m having so much more fun with it [now]. After I've gotten my last world title in 2022, I feel like I’ve got this sense of lightness as well, where I want to enjoy the rest of the sport, have fun, really push the limits and see where I can go.”