Sitting in the bathroom of a Baltimore hotel in January 2011, Keli Smith Puzo anxiously awaited the results of a home pregnancy test. She clutched the tiny piece of plastic in her hand, took a deep breath and looked down.
It was official. For the second time since competing at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, the former Terrapins field hockey standout would be having a child.
“My first reaction was that my career was over,” Smith Puzo said.
She couldn’t have been more wrong.
Less than a year removed from the birth of her second child, Ian, the 33-year-old Smith Puzo is proving motherhood doesn’t need to end world-class ambitions. She is in London hoping to help U.S. field hockey capture its first Olympic medal since 1984.
“She’s genetically gifted,” said Katie O’Donnell, a Terps student-assistant coach who will likely start alongside Smith Puzo in London. “To come back and just be an outstanding player and a leader on our forward line after so much time off, it’s just amazing.”
But that comeback almost never happened.
When the 10-year national team veteran learned she was pregnant with Ian, she figured it was nature’s way of telling her it was time to retire. She was scheduled to give birth in August, giving her just 12 months to prepare for London.
Smith Puzo, who had taken almost a year to recover from her previous pregnancy, wasn’t sure she was up to the task. She told her husband, Iñako Puzo, she was willing to retire and fully devote herself to their family.
But Puzo wasn’t quite ready to let his wife give up on an Olympic return. He encouraged her to wait, to see how she felt before leaving the sport completely.
“I said, ‘Don’t make a decision, you know, talk with the coach. Look at his reaction, and let’s wait,’” said Puzo, a former Venezuelan national field hockey team member. “‘You have a great field hockey career. You may be able to come back.’”
Two weeks later, Smith Puzo reported to training camp in California to prepare for the Four Nations tournament in Argentina. Though she kept her pregnancy a secret from her teammates until the competition was over, Smith Puzo clued in Team USA coach Lee Bodimeade. He told her to compete in South America before going on maternity leave, and then decide whether she was ready for a comeback.
That’s what she did. After helping the United States to a second-place finish in Argentina, she returned home to get ready for a late-summer birth. She was three months’ pregnant at the time.
“She’s a tough athlete, and her body’s very athletic,” Puzo said. “So I think being in a very healthy situation helped her to be able to play even when she was two or three months’ pregnant.”
Smith Puzo was patient with herself during the latter stages of the pregnancy. She never put too much pressure on herself, trained when possible and kept an open mind about a possible return to field hockey.
And even after she gave birth to Ian on Aug. 31, 2011, Smith Puzo took her time. The Selinsgrove, Pa., native avoided the gym for the first six weeks of post-pregnancy to let her body heal and regain its equilibrium.
She eventually started hitting the gym and returned to the team in December. And when she finally felt her legs back underneath her, she decided to play competitively again in mid-January.
“I don’t necessarily see it as a comeback,” Bodimeade said. “I think [her taking the time between Beijing and London to create a better life balance] has provided her a much better perspective on her life and where she wants to go, and her performances are showing she is comfortable where she is.”
In her first international game back from maternity leave Jan. 14, Smith Puzo scored both of the United States’ goals in a 2-2 tie against Australia. Realizing she had a solid chance of securing one of the 16 spots on this summer’s Olympic, Smith Puzo made a full-time commitment to the team.
Still, she wasn’t about to let her field hockey responsibilities distract her from her obligations as a mom.
“For her, her kids just being there and having that force,” Terps coach Missy Meharg said, “I think she should be able to separate the hockey from her life with so much more ease.”
Of course, it hasn’t always been easy. In late January, Smith Puzo moved into a San Diego-area apartment with her two sons while she trained with the national team. Her husband stayed behind in Oxford, Ohio, where he transitioned into his new job as the women’s field hockey coach at Miami (Ohio).
For the next four months, Smith Puzo lived something of a double life.
On a typical day, she’d wake up at about 5 a.m., make breakfast, get Ian and Xavi ready and drop them off at a former Terps field hockey player’s house. She would then go to a seven-hour practice, have maybe an hour to herself and play with the kids for a couple hours before they all fell asleep at about 7 or 8 p.m.
But one day, the schedule didn’t go according to plan. Just three days before Smith Puzo returned to the East Coast, Ian contracted hand, foot and mouth disease. His babysitter was sick with the stomach flu, and Smith Puzo had no friends or family in the area able to look after her two sons. She had no choice. She would have to miss practice.
“That was a big situation, where she’s there by herself, [and] she has to make a decision,” Puzo said. “And it was very hard for her. She didn’t want to have any special treatment from the coaching staff or from anyone. She wanted to be one more player.”
In that moment, Smith Puzo had a pivotal realization: Nothing, not even her commitment to Team USA, is more important than being a mother to Ian and Xavi. It’s why she gets up each day, why she is content retiring after competing in London.
It’s what makes this whole journey worth it.
“Knowing that they’re on this journey with me, as hard as it may be some days, is extra special,” Smith Puzo said. “I thought if I can do it, ‘Wow, how amazing.’”
walker@umdbk.com
