Anaïs Quemener: “My son gives me a new strength”

Anaïs Quemener is one of those athletes whose journey commands admiration. A two-time French marathon champion, in 2016 and 2022, and the winner of prestigious races such as the Semi-Marathon du Mont-Ventoux and the EcoTrail Paris, the La Meute Running athlete has overcome breast cancer and embodies a rare resilience. In 2025, a new chapter opened for her: motherhood, with the arrival of her son Elyo. Becoming a mother while competing at the highest level inevitably changes something. The body shifts, priorities evolve and familiar reference points move. But for Anaïs Quemener, it has not been a stark before-and-after. She describes it more as a continuation: a body that adapts, a mind that grows stronger, and a gentler approach to performance that remains just as ambitious. ✓ In this candid interview, Anaïs Quemener shares her experience as a woman, mother and athlete. She looks back on her pregnancy, her return to running, her bond with her son and the way this new life has enriched her approach to competition.

Becoming a mother: a changing body, a new strength

Some races are hard and stay with you, but one of Anaïs Quemener’s most beautiful races was the nine months of her pregnancy. It was a new, rhythmic adventure that always left room for running. Even so, being a high-level athlete and watching your body change is no easy task. Anaïs, however, was not worried. “I thought it was going to be complicated, but in the end I loved watching my body change month by month.”

She acknowledges that running while carrying a baby can raise doubts and questions about the safety of both mother and child. But one thing is certain: no one understands those sensations better than a mother. The French marathon champion puts it this way: “I think the key is to listen to yourself and trust your own sensations. If Mum is well, the baby is well and the medical team has given the green light, there is no reason to stop being physically active. I think that if we feel well as mothers, the baby will be well too.”

Elyo gave his mother the chance to keep running until she was more than seven months pregnant. As she puts it, “I feel like while I was pregnant, he let me keep running”. The little boy therefore grew up with running, and he is still rocked by the rhythm of his mother’s strides from his pushchair.

Back to racing: a fresh burst of energy

2025 continues to be an emotional year for Anaïs Quemener. She has given birth, but she is also continuing to give her own life meaning through increasingly ambitious challenges. The French athlete, whose marathon personal best is 2:28:43 in Seville in 2024, will line up for the five-day Marathon de Colmar on 1 July. You do not often see a woman run a marathon every day for five days, just five months after giving birth. She also had to resume training relatively quickly to be ready for the event. That called for some adjustments: “I still managed to get some volume into my training. I can put in 100 to 110-kilometre weeks. After that, it’s all about the mental side, because during my biggest weeks I get up at four in the morning to go running”.

The runner has always shown tremendous strength throughout her journey, and she continues to prove it. Alongside the strength her new role as a mother gives her, however, there is also a touch of weakness in the mix. Not the kind of weakness that makes you less strong, but the kind that helps you grow stronger while also making you more vulnerable.

It’s funny because I feel both very strong and very fragile at the same time, because anything involving my little boy affects me deeply. There’s this feeling of being very strong as a woman because you have managed to give birth, and that is something incredible. At the same time, a little fear or the slightest negative thing he might feel affects you more.”
Anaïs Quemener

At the Semi-Marathon d’Annecy on 26 April 2025, where she ran 1:27:23 in her first official race after giving birth, Anaïs remembers experiencing the event with a different intensity. “ There was something different, a wave of emotion, something incredibly powerful that swept through us”.

She will draw on that strength for every goal ahead. She now knows that even when things get tough, she will have the strength that motherhood and her son give her every day. Becoming a mother has not taken Anaïs Quemener away from performance. Quite the opposite. It has reshaped her relationship with effort, training and desire. She knows how to channel that desire by moving at her own pace and accepting that an effort that does not feel right can wait. Her strength lies in her determination, her wisdom and, above all, her son Elyo.

By becoming a mother, Anaïs Quemener did more than give life: she found a new strength of her own. More than a driving force, her son Elyo has become the breath that carries her through every stride, a daily reminder that performance takes on a different meaning when it is rooted in love and resilience. Her journey, already marked by victory over illness, is now entering an even more inspiring chapter: that of a woman balancing motherhood and elite sport with disarming authenticity.

Stronger, more fragile too, but above all freer, Anaïs Quemener continues to forge her own path, one step at a time, proving that every finish line can become a new starting point.

The editorial team