How breastfeeding mum Stephanie Case won a 100km race
The extraordinary image, taken before she was crowned an unexpected winner of the 100km Ultra-Trail Snowdonia two months ago, crystallised the challenges faced by multitasking mums everywhere – but Case thought nothing of it.
'It was quite a normal moment for me,' Case, a Canadian based in Chamonix who has competed in ultra-endurance events for two decades, tells Telegraph Sport. 'Even in 2025, we still have these ideas in our head about what a new mum should look like and what a new mum should be doing. Having this photo of me in the middle of a race, pursuing my passion, stuffing some watermelon into my mouth while also holding my baby, showed me being an athlete and a mum at the same time in a way that wasn't in conflict.'
After three years away from the ultra-endurance scene – during which she had two miscarriages and several rounds of IVF – it was Case's first race postpartum. The 42-year-old competes in endurance races as a way to manage the stress from her demanding job as a successful human rights lawyer; Case has worked in the Middle East and her charity, Free to Run, aims to empower young women and girls who live in war zones.
Having lost her protected ranking, meaning she had to start 30 minutes after the elite competitors, she had no expectations. But when organisers checked her chip time of 16 hours 53 minutes and 22 seconds, she was declared an unlikely winner of the female event in Eryri National Park by more than four minutes. 'I had to go back and cross the finish line again so that they could put up the tape for me to run through,' laughs Case, who started behind 'hundreds' of runners.
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