Sports
Ranking the Best Moms in the History of Professional Sports
Tennis legend Serena Williams, seen here waving to the crowd after losing the final match of her career to Ajla Tomljanovic 2022 U.S. Open tennis, has suffered two pulmonary embolisms — the first in 2011 and the second in 2017 after the birth of her first child. She was able to return to competition both times but has also said that she needs to be vigilant for the rest of her life when it comes to early detection of blood clots. Happy Mother’s Day to all of those great moms out there.
In the world of sports, the athletes that we’ve grown to love wouldn’t be the superstars that they are today without the women who raised them. At the same time, there have been some kickass women, who are also mothers and competitors in the world of sports.
Let’s take a look at the greatest sports mothers ever.
Serena Williams
Why not start this off with the GOAT? Williams famously won the 2017 Australian Open while eight to nine weeks pregnant with her daughter, Olympia. A fitting name for the daughter of an athlete who has four gold medals.
In the 2017 Aussie Open, Williams defeated her sister, Venus Williams, in the final and labeled this as her greatest career achievement. Williams didn’t drop a single set, making this one of the most dominant victories in her storied career.
Williams discovered she was pregnant with her first child days before the tournament. Even with that sort of pressure, she was able to dominate the competition.
American tennis might never have another phenom like Williams, so we should appreciate this story and her career whenever we get the chance.
Gloria James
Jan 13, 2026; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) wears a patch affixed to the upper right chest to celebrate his record-setting 23rd NBA season during the first half against the Atlanta Hawks at Crypto.com Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kiyoshi Mio-Imagn Images It’s wild that because of LeBron James’ greatness on the hardwood, we forget about his tremendously humble beginnings.
Gloria had LeBron at 16 as a single mother in Akron. The pair faced unstable housing and the pressure of raising a young child at such a young age. Gloria wasn’t focused on creating arguably the greatest basketball player of all-time, she was simply trying to survive with her new son.
During LeBron’s first stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Gloria was a fixture in the Cleveland market, appearing courtside at games and jawing at the other team. Now, she serves as the vice president of the LeBron James Family Foundation and is tremendously active in her son’s charitable works. She has a son still playing in the NBA, and a grandson playing with him. Pretty damn cool.
Wanda Durant
Oct 24, 2025; Houston, Texas, USA; Houston Rockets forward Kevin Durant (7) reacts after a play during the third quarter against the Detroit Pistons at Toyota Center. Mandatory Credit: Troy Taormina-Imagn Images The real MVP, Kevin Durant’s mother was also a single mom that had to navigate raising a son that would eventually turn into one of the purest scorers of all-time.
Wanda rose to fame during KD’s acceptance speech for his 2014 NBA MVP award. He credited her with keeping them off the streets, providing food and clothing, and working to keep the family going.
“You went to sleep hungry,” Durant said. “You sacrificed for us.”
At the end of the day, what great mother wouldn’t?
Sports
Disguised, Sentinels win basement battles at LCS Spring
A backlit keyboard is part of the gear online video game streamer Jordan Woodruff uses in his Gilbert home.
Jordan Woodruff
Sentinels and Disguised earned victories as the bottom four teams in the standings were in action on the opening day of Week 6 of the regular season of the LCS Spring event in Los Angeles on Saturday.
Sentinels remained locked into a top-five spot with a 2-0 sweep of Shopify Rebellion, and Disguised kept Dignitas winless in regular-season play with a 2-0 triumph.
Eight teams will compete in best-of-three matches in the round-robin regular season before advancing to the playoffs of the League of Legends event, which will be contested in best-of-five matches in a double-elimination format. The top two teams will qualify for the Mid-Season Invitational.
Sentinels swept its match with a pair of victories on red in 39 and 32 minutes.
Jeong “Impact” Eon-young and Cho “Rahel” Min-seong of South Korea split MVP honors, posting kill-death-assist ratios of 6-4-8 and 10-2-12, respectively, in the match. Australia’s Ibrahim “Fudge” Allami led Shopify Rebellion’s charge with a 5-6-6 K-D-A ratio.
Disguised’s sweep of Dignitas came via a 26-minute win on red followed by a 43-minute victory on blue.
Christian “KryRa” Rahaian of Canada was the MVP of both wins, posting a 4-4-26 K-D-A ratio in the match. Australian Ian Victor “FBI” Huang was Dignitas’ most effective player with a 6-3-7 K-D-A ratio.
The penultimate week of the regular season concludes Sunday with the top four teams in the standings in action. Cloud9 takes on FlyQuest and Team Liquid faces LYON.
Regular-season standings (Win-loss total, map differential)
T1. Cloud9, 5-0, 10-3
T1. Team Liquid, 5-0, 10-3
3. LYON, 4-1, 9-3
4. FlyQuest, 3-2, 8-5
5. Sentinels, 2-4, 7-9
6. Disguised, 2-4, 4-9
7. Shopify Rebellion, 1-5, 3-10
8. Dignitas, 0-6, 3-12
–Field Level Media
Sports
Wild hand Avalanche first postseason loss in dominant fashion
May 9, 2026; Saint Paul, Minnesota, USA; Minnesota Wild right wing Ryan Hartman (38) is congratulated by teammates after scoring on the Colorado Avalanche in the second period of game three of the second round of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Grand Casino Arena. Mandatory Credit: Matt Blewett-Imagn Images Kirill Kaprizov and Brock Faber each finished with a goal and two assists as the Minnesota Wild pulled away for a 5-1 win over the Colorado Avalanche in Game 3 of their Western Conference semifinal series on Saturday night in Saint Paul, Minn.
Quinn Hughes tallied a goal and an assist for Minnesota, which pulled within 2-1 in the best-of-seven series. Ryan Hartman and Matt Boldy also scored and Mats Zuccarello had two assists for the Wild.
Nathan MacKinnon scored the only goal for Colorado, which lost for the first time in the postseason after entering with a 6-0 record.
The teams will reconvene for Game 4 on Monday night in Minnesota.
“I thought we came out with desperation,” Faber said. “There’s no excuses for the way we played (in the first two games). I think it was a quick turnaround with an emotional series in Dallas, and we need to move on quicker, and I think we didn’t bring our best in Colorado.
“But tonight was a lot better. Tonight was the way we play.”
Wild goaltender Jesper Wallstedt turned aside 34 of 35 shots to earn the victory.
Avalanche goaltender Scott Wedgewood allowed three goals on 12 shots before he was replaced in the second period. Mackenzie Blackwood saw his first action of the postseason and stopped 12 of 13 shots in backup duty.
“I felt like it was a good opportunity to get him in and see if it sparked our group and if he could maybe close the door the rest of the way,” Colorado coach Jared Bednar said of the goaltending change. “So that’s why I did it. It just felt like they had all the momentum and all the steam early in that game, and we needed to do something.”
Minnesota grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first period. Kaprizov opened the scoring with 4:49 remaining in the first period. He raced toward the net, took a pass from Faber and finished with a wrist shot from the left side of the crease.
Hughes scored less than two minutes later to give the Wild a two-goal advantage. He handled the puck from the left circle to the top of the slot and fired a wrist shot through traffic for the power-play goal.
Another power-play goal gave Minnesota a 3-0 lead with 15:37 left in the second period. Hartman parked in front of the crease and knocked in a shot from the point by Zuccarello.
“We didn’t play good enough to win that hockey game tonight,” Bednar said. “We played against a desperate hockey team. It looked to me like they had more determination. They were more tenacious, more physical. We tried to respond, but we didn’t get a lot out of some of our lines tonight.”
The Avalanche got on the scoreboard with 6:49 remaining in the second period. Wallstedt stopped Colorado’s initial shot, but MacKinnon spotted the rebound and punched it in for the power-play goal.
The Wild needed only 20 seconds to respond. Faber scored on a deflection to increase the Wild’s lead to 4-1 with 6:29 to go in the second period.
Boldy capped the scoring with an empty-net goal with 3.3 seconds remaining.
-Field Level Media
Sports
Royal Ravens knock Thieves from unbeaten ranks at CDL Major 3 qualifying
YMCA member Austin Manengu works the keyboard as he plays a game of Fortnite during the unveiling of the new gaming lab at the Maplewood Family YMCA in Rochester Thursday, June 20, 2024. YMCA of Greater Rochester in partnership with Metro Sports & Entertainment Group will open two gaming labs for youth and teens this year. The Carolina Royal Ravens rallied from a loss in the opening map to hand the Los Angeles Thieves their first match defeat 3-2 in qualifying for the Call of Duty League Stage 3 Major on Saturday.
Three of the four matches on Day 2 of the third and final week were 3-2 decisions. First-place OpTic Texas downed FaZe Vegas to remain unbeaten, and Boston Breach recorded their first win by edging G2 Minnesota by the one-map margin. In the other match, the Riyadh Falcons topped winless Cloud9 New York 3-1.
The 12 Call of Duty League teams are playing a full qualifying round robin to determine seeding for the third major of the season, to be held May 15-17 as part of the DreamHack Atlanta event.
On Saturday, the Carolina Royal Ravens fell 250-197 on Gridlock Hardpoint to open their match against the Los Angeles Thieves. Carolina drew even with a 6-4 victory on Raid Search and Destroy, then lost again, this time on Exposure Overload, 5-3.
But the Royal Ravens captured the last two maps, Colossus Hardpoint (250-210) and Fringe Search and Destroy (6-4) to win the match 3-2 and blemish Los Angeles’ overall record at 3-1.
Carolina’s Logan “Lurqxx” Brown of the United States was selected the match MVP with 95 kills and a plus-7 kill-death differential.
OpTic Texas had to battle past FaZe Vegas 3-2 despite a fast start. Texas won 250-243 on Den Hardpoint and 6-4 on Gridlock Search and Destroy. Vegas rallied with victories on Scar Overload (4-2) and Gridlock Hardpoint (250-183) before OpTic closed it out with a 6-2 win on Plaza Search and Destroy.
Optic’s Mason “Mercules” Ramsey of the United States was the match MVP with 104 kills and a plus-8 K-D differential.
Boston Breach also started strong against G2 Minnesota, winning 250-247 on Scar Hardpoint and 6-4 on Fringe Search and Destroy. But Minnesota responded with victories on Den Overload (5-1) and Den Hardpoint (250-157) to force a fifth map. Boston emerged with a 6-4 triumph on Scar Search and Destroy for the 3-2 victory.
Breach’s Byron “Nastie” Plumridge of the United Kingdom was match MVP with 97 kills and a plus-12 K-D differential.
The Riyadh Falcons didn’t have to go to a fifth map, but they didn’t make it easy by dropping the opening map to Cloud9 New York, 250-197 on Gridlock Hardpoint. The Falcons then reeled off victories on Raid Search and Destroy (6-4), Exposure Overload (6-1) and Den Hardpoint (250-197) for the 3-1 victory.
Riyadh’s Amer “Pred” Zuibeari of Australia was match MVP with 87 kills and a plus-17 K-D differential.
Sunday’s schedule, Day 3 of Week 3
–Paris Gentle Mates vs. Miami Heretics
–Los Angeles Thieves vs. G2 Minnesota
–Toronto KOI vs. Cloud9 New York
Call of Duty League Stage 3 Major qualifying, with match record and map differential
1. OpTic Texas 5-0, 15-6
T2. Los Angeles Thieves, 3-1, 11-5
T2. Toronto KOI, 3-1, 11-5
4. Paris Gentle Mates, 3-1, 9-7
5. FaZe Vegas, 3-2, 12-9
6. Riyadh Falcons, 3-2, 11-9
7. Vancouver Surge, 2-3, 8-11
8. Carolina Royal Ravens, 2-3, 11-12
9. G2 Minnesota, 1-3, 6-9
10. Miami Heretics, 1-3, 5-10
11. Boston Breach, 1-4, 7-14
12. Cloud9 New York, 0-4, 3-12
–Field Level Media
Disguised, Sentinels win basement battles at LCS Spring
FCC to allow banned drones and routers to receive critical updates until 2029
