Athing Mu-Nikolayev revealed on Thursday that she is pregnant with her first child with husband Yegor.
In a message posted on social media on Thursday, Mu-Nikolayev is seen in several photos touching her stomach and showed a sonogram image as the couple posed in a field.
“Baby on board 🫶🏿☀️ Can’t wait to meet our little Sunshine!,” Mu-Nikolayev said in her post that drew an outpouring of congratulations from her followers and notables within the running community.
Mu-Nikolayev and Yegor got married in March 2025 after announcing their engagement months earlier in September 2024.
She linked with Bobby Kersee as her new coach in 2023, joining Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, and took bronze in the women’s 800m at the world championships in Budapest in August, but rebounded weeks later with a win at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene. Mu-Nikolayev would be largely absent from the circuit after the victory, later revealing that she was navigating the mental rigors that came with her success.
“The season leading up to it – not in terms of training, but mentally – I just wasn’t really there,” she said in an interview with The Guardian in June 2024. “I just wasn’t present. I didn’t appreciate being there. I didn’t really enjoy what was happening to me.”
But after more than nine months away from the sport, she returned and reached the women’s 800m final at the 2024 U.S. Olympic trials but stayed near the rear of the pack early on and fell, finishing last. The mishap meant that she would miss the Paris Games and not defend her title, which was ultimately won by Keely Hodgkinson.
Mu-Nikolayev has maintained a relatively low profile away from the track since the fall at the 2024 Olympic trials.
She raced at last year’s outdoor nationals in Eugene and was eliminated in the semifinals of the women’s 800m, finishing fourth in her heat in 1:59.79. She moved to Dallas and reportedly severed ties with Kersee as her coach, which he confirmed in December 2025.
In April, Mu-Nikolayev appeared in a marketing campaign for Nike’s Pegasus 42 daily trainer but did not compete this season.
