Most beach volleyball players had to deal with several sleepless nights over the last three months while they traveled around the world chasing their dreams of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics.
The sleepless nights were there for Taru Lahti-Liukkonen too, but luckily for her, her dream was quietly smiling at her, right on her lap.
The most accomplished beach volleyball player in Finland’s history, the 28-year-old Lahti-Liukkonen wasn’t part of the absolute madness that international beach volleyball turned into in 2021 but she was engaged on her own memorable experience after she gave birth to her first daughter, Aida, at the beginning of March.
“My biggest dream came true and it feels so go to be a mother,” she told beachvienna.com. “From a very young age, I always knew I wanted to start a family someday and I decided to do it sooner rather than later. As an athlete, there’s never ‘the right time to do it’ and one way or the other you will end up missing some tournaments you’d like to play at.”
Lahti-Liukkonen, who’s married to beach volleyball coach Kaipe Liukkonen, severely hurt her chances of qualifying for the Tokyo Olympics with her decision to become a mother this year. She missed the final stretch of the qualification process and wasn’t ready yet for last week’s European Continental Cup Finals in the Hague, the last opportunity to secure a spot in the Games.
A three-time World Tour medalist, Lahti-Liukkonen is currently working on her conditioning in order to return to the courts soon.
“I’m really confident I can make a strong comeback,” she explained. “There are some really inspiring players on our Tour who did it after having babies and I believe I can do it too. All is going well with my return. I started working on my body right after labor and I’ve been able to see the improvement week after week. I’m training normally now and it’s just a matter of regaining my conditioning. It’s amazing what a woman’s body can do.”
Lahti-Liukkonen’s main goal for 2021 is to be able to compete at the A1 CEV EuroBeachVolley presented by Swatch, from August 11-15, in Vienna. The Finnish blocker has appeared in seven-straight editions of the tournament between 2013 and 2019 and has a fifth-place finish with Anniina Parkkinen in 2017 as her best result.
Lahti-Liukkonen is already entered with Parkkinen for the tournament and if things continue to go in the right direction in her training sessions, she’ll be able to join the European elite in Austria in August. She recently decided to skip next week’s World Tour stop in Gstaad and is considering playing in events of the Finnish Tour to regain her match fitness ahead of the EuroBeachVolley.
“It looks like I’ll be able to play in Vienna,” she added. “My recovery has been going well, but it’s still a week-by-week process to get there both physically and mentally. I have also to see where the baby will be in terms of breastfeeding and how dependent on me she will be by then, but the plan is to take her and Kaipe to Vienna with me, so that would make things easier. Playing at the EuroBeachVolley is always special and this year it will hopefully be even more as a mother and with my baby there. Vienna is one of the greatest places in the world to play beach volleyball and I can’t wait to be there and to get to play with Anniina again.”
Neither do we, Taru, welcome back!
