Olympian Rachel Dutschk compares gruelling schedule as mum of two with training for Olympics
Olympian diver Rachel Dutschke has compared two daily routines. One when she was training for the Olympics. The other as a mum of two young kids. One pales in comparison.
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It’s hard to say when the day actually starts for Rachel Dutschke. There’s a feed for her four-month-old son Banjo at 1am and then again at 3am. Then her eldest son, Bodhi, who is nearly two, usually wakes up before the sun rises.
Then in quick succession the day passes in a blur of feeding, playing, playground visits, naps, house cleans and bedtime routines.
Throw in a few days of work, daycare drops, a gym session when possible, and it’s no surprise that Dutschke, like most modern mums, needs a hefty amount of stamina to keep up with the juggle.
“Parenting is definitely challenging,” Dutschke says from the family home in Lower Mitcham. “You’re left to look after another life that can’t talk to you and communicate with you. So it’s a guessing game.
“I literally call parenting ‘surviving’. Like so many parents and so many of my friends, everyone does things differently. I don’t feel like there’s a right or wrong way. I never judge. I’m very supportive of everyone’s decisions as it is a survival of the fittest.”
And the 35-year-old mum of two knows a thing or two about survival of the fittest.
Dutschke represented Australia at the London 2012 Summer Olympics in the 10m women’s synchronised platform diving event with Loudy Wiggins.
Back then, she was better known as Rachel Bugg, before changing her name after getting married. Leaving Adelaide in 2010 after turning 20, she moved to Brisbane for two years of intense training before the London Olympics.
Each day was rigid in its repetitiveness, she recalls, but the dream of winning was the fuel.
Wake-up, train, lunch and train again, and then an early night. It’s a routine she was used to after switching from gymnastics to diving when she was just 11 years old.
But she admits now, as Australia’s elite athletes start landing in France ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics starting on July 26, that it was a time of blood, sweat, tears and heartache – when she missed out on a bronze after coming in fourth behind Canada.
“There’s a lot of sacrifice. A lot of dedication, a lot of ups and downs when you train for the Olympics,” she said.
“It’s a roller coaster. It’s a lot of times of wanting to give up.
“And you go through these periods, especially when I was in high school, where you are missing parties and at the time it felt like the end of the world that you were missing out.”
There was also one aspect that Dutschke admits was the hardest part of Olympian training … the loneliness. Long stretches of time away from her family and a tough time making romances work when travelling overseas.
In fact, for Dutschke, her love life was so turbulent in her 20s that as she headed towards 30, having retired from competitive diving after the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, she decided that long-term love looked unlikely for her and started to talk to fertility doctors about becoming a solo mum.
“I didn’t want to find someone just to settle down … so I was kind of going down that path of having a kid by myself so I could be a mum,” Dutschke says. She laughs as she adds, “And then I met my partner.”
In July 2019, when visiting a mutual friend on the Yorke Peninsula, she met a “good country boy” called Josh.
Their fairytale romance was speedy. By August the next year, they were engaged and in December of 2021, the couple got married in a picture-perfect ceremony at Glen Ewin Estate, surrounded by 125 guests.
“I think it got to a point where I kind of knew what I wanted and obviously he did too,” Dutschke says. “We were pretty open and upfront, really honest early on, and we both wanted the same things.”
In September 2022, her son Bodhi was born but the pregnancy had been a tough one and the Olympian found the lack of control over her changing body challenging.
“It was hard. I remember thinking all the time that I just wanted to stop being sick. I really wanted to be able to enjoy my pregnancy,” Dutschke says.
“I used to think I can’t wait to be pregnant, and I always thought I’d love it, and then I was like, ‘This is horrific. I just want the kid.’”
Even after Bodhi was born, the couple faced months of zero sleep as their newborn faced medical issues.
“He just screamed for months and months,” she recalls. “He didn’t sleep. We didn’t sleep. I had a bad pregnancy, a bad recovery after birth and bad first few months as a new mum.”
Dutschke knew she wanted to have two children and for them to be close in age, so in February this year, she and Josh welcomed Banjo into the world.
He has been, she says, a much easier baby, but life with two is undoubtedly busy. And it just got busier with Dutschke accepting a part-time role at Diving Australia as its performance and pathways lead.
“I think it’s really hard for modern mums and the juggle,” she says. “There’s financial pressure to get back to work and then try and do everything for your kids, work and family.
“I honestly have a really good village around me but with lots of people living away from families, this isn’t always possible and makes the most challenging gig even harder.
“Seriously, modern motherhood is an endurance sport.”
So, which is hardest: being an Olympian or being a mum of two young children?
“It’s different, but with parenting there’s no break and it’s every day and all day.
“But I would say that training as an Olympian is good ground work for having two boys under two. They are very busy so you need to have a good level of energy.
“But I wouldn’t trade it for the world. I feel very fortunate I have struck gold with my husband, really. He is such a good husband, such a good dad, and he is so hands-on with the boys. I’m so grateful for it.”
Day in the life of an Olympian
●5.30am Wake up, eat toast and peanut butter with coffee.
●6am Strength and conditioning training at the gym.
●8am Second breakfast time, often eggs or avo on toast.
●12pm Meet with friends to boost mental health.
●1pm Lunch of wraps with high protein filling.
●2.30pm Hit the pool for training.
●5.30pm Finish training and head home.
●6pm Dinner of apricot chicken.
●7pm Bedtime.
Day in the life of a mum-of-two
●6am Wake up with toddler.
●7am Feed toddler.
●8am Playtime, eat toast myself if time.
●9am Baby wakes up for morning feed.
●10am Coffee and walk to the park.
●11.30am Early lunch before nap.
●12.30pm Toddler has a nap, now 1:1 time with the baby.
●1.30pm Baby goes down and toddler wakes up.
●2.30pm Snack time.
●4pm Husband home, takes the kids out, clean up.
●5pm Dinner prep and service.
●6pm Bathtime routine.
●7pm Bedtime routine.
●1am Baby has a feed.
● 3am Baby has another feed.
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