Champion, Record Breaker and Devoted Mother

Jolie Robinson is a two-time Big West champion in the heptathlon. This year, she also broke UC Irvine’s indoor long jump record (6.04m) and was a pivotal part of the outdoor 4x400 relay (3:41:03) that took down a 13-year-old school record. Jolie’s impressive collection of hardware and record-breaking performances isn’t the only thing that sets her apart from her competitors. Her five-year-old son, Micaiah, who waits for her at the finish line and stands proudly atop the podiums with her, makes Jolie’s life as a student-athlete much different from her peers.

Double duty: Jolie Robinson thrives as parent, heptathlete at UC Irvine (Scott Reid - OC Register)

Track runs in Jolie’s family, with her grandfather being a coach and later training her brother. In 2016, during her freshman year of high school, she started competing as a way to have fun and stay in shape during volleyball offseason. By her senior year, she realized that her future was more secure with track due to the opportunities it brought her. And so, she verbally committed to an out-of-state school for track and field and intended to leave behind her life not only on the volleyball court, but in Southern California. That was until 18-year-old Jolie found out she was going to be having a baby. 

Jolie was not only about to experience a teen pregnancy, but was going to do it within the confines of a Christian household.

“It was really scary, my dad was a pastor growing up, but by the time I told them I had already accepted it myself,” Jolie remembers.       

Once Jolie had come to terms with her new future, she wasn’t as concerned about what other people would think of her. She had the comfort of knowing that the people who were most important in her life would love her no matter what, but it didn’t help to change the initial shock and fear she faced when learning she would become a teen mom.      

“It was a lot of ups and downs of emotions knowing that my childhood was over, but I had to get over that and realize that he was going to be the biggest blessing,” Jolie said. “If my identity was just being his mother, I was okay with that.”    

Jolie continued to compete until she was three months pregnant, which nobody else knew at the time. And although she was devastated to give up the sports she loved, she was happy to have her last hoorah before she took on motherhood full time. She decommitted from her school and began to prepare for her son.  

“I just thought that people didn’t really compete in college when they had kids. I knew I had to give that up to be a mom now,” Jolie said. 

Micaiah was born on December 6, 2019, on Jolie’s 19th birthday, in the same hospital she was born.     

It wasn’t until Jolie was watching the Tokyo Summer Olympics with her parents that she became emotional watching the athletes compete. Her parents expressed to her that if she wanted to compete again, they would support her and help her in any way that they could.     

“I thought maybe I can do this,” Jolie remembers. “It’s going to take a lot of support but this is something that I can do.”

Jolie was ready to completely abandon her dreams of going to college to become a full-time mother, but it was her parents who encouraged her to take a few online classes at Saddleback, a community college near her home in Mission Viejo. And so, when she decided she wanted to compete again, a longtime family friend who happened to be the head track coach at Saddleback College, helped to get her on both the track and volleyball teams.         

After her first year back, she won the heptathlon, javelin, and long jump at the 2022 CCCAA State Championships. UC Irvine’s head track and field coach, Jeff Perkins, was the last coach to reach out to Jolie, but proved to leave the biggest impact on her.

“None of the other coaches I talked to brought up my son; they talked about me like just another number, just another one of their athletes,” Jolie remembers. “But all of my coaches here have kids close to my son’s age so it was nice to know that they’ll always understand that my son is my first priority.”

With Jolie now in her third year at UCI, and Micaiah having just turned five this past December, she treasures every moment of her collegiate career that she gets to share with her son. It’s not uncommon for Micaiah to accompany his mom to practice or class, and the support from her teammates and coaches helps to make it all possible.  

“They have been so accommodating for everything I would need to be successful as a mom and as a student-athlete,” Jolie said. 

Having her son stand atop the podium with her and greet her at the finish line has made competing all that more special to Jolie. Not many people can say they won back-to-back conference championships with their child cheering them on, but it’s the smaller moments that mean the most to Jolie.

“He doesn’t really understand the numbers, he just knows that I’m doing a good job,” Jolie said. “He’s engaged in what I’m doing; even if he doesn’t fully understand, he still thinks that I’m always doing my best, and he’s proud of me.”  

While being able to compete and be a mother at the same time is deeply rewarding for Jolie, it is far from easy. Unlike other student-athletes whose lives often revolve around their sport, she has to set her priorities differently. She often reminds herself that while she devotes countless hours to the sport and always competes at her best, track won’t mean as much to her as her son and their future together. 

“Even if I win a conference title, I still have to go home and make him dinner,” Jolie said. 

There have been many moments where she has felt like she can’t do both, and it takes a community of coaches, professors, academic advisors, friends, and family to provide the support she needs to keep pushing forward. While she finds it difficult at times, she knows that it is okay to ask for help when she feels she needs a break, and she reminds herself that what she's doing as a student-athlete is also for Micaiah.

“Even just doing a heptathlon is very mentally and physically draining, and every time I think, ‘I’ve literally given birth, I can make it through anything’,” Jolie said.     

Since finding out she was pregnant, Jolie has been documenting her life on social media and has amassed almost 100,000 followers on Instagram. Her goal was to show other young moms that they can still accomplish their dreams. She has become an important figure amongst athletes, whom many have turned to for advice after finding out they were pregnant.  

“If I can have an impact on a small amount of people’s lives, then that means something,” Jolie said.    

Jolie’s story has brought a different perspective to what life as a student-athlete can look like. She is inspiring to many young moms and athletes who have been able to see that it is possible to accomplish your own dreams, while being a successful and strong mom.