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WATCH | Mom athletes made to choose between their Olympic dreams and their babies

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It's a choice Canadian basketball player Kim Gaucher doesn't want to make; going to the Olympics or staying home with her daughter Sophie, who Gaucher says is still breastfeeding

"I think I cry about it every night; it's an incredibly difficult decision". 

Gaucher is headed to the US for training, marking the start of a ten-week period of travel ending at the Tokyo Olympics, which is set to begin in July. 

This would be her third Olympics games, a chance to finally get on the podium, but Japan has banned family members (including infants) because of the pandemic. 

"I need to decide between spending 28 days without my daughter or fulfilling another Olympic dream," Gaucher says. 

WATCH | South Africans share what they wished they'd said to their mothers

Hopes for an exemption

In a joint statement, the Canadian Olympic Committee and Canada Basketball say they "recognise how difficult this situation is and have made an appeal to the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee". 

But the organising committee has not responded to the appeal or that of other mothers in similar situations. 

US marathon runner, Aliphine Tuliamuk, has also petitioned to bring her baby, who is also still nursing. 

Tennis superstar Serena Williams has said if her young daughter can't come, she likely won't go to Tokyo. 

Gaucher has now turned to social media in her plea for an exemption. 

Watch the video above for more. 

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