Alysia Montano is the four-time defending champion in the 800-meters race, so she wasn't about to let pregnancy stop her from competing.

When the runners lined up at the starting line on Thursday (June 26) at the US Track and Field Championships in Sacramento, California, Montano was there, despite being 34 weeks pregnant.

The 28-year-old athlete said she was nervous about continuing to train, but her medical team assured her it was safe.

"Of course, this is my first pregnancy and I had a lot of questions, with my doctor and my midwife and just how to go about it and my midwife and my doctors were so encouraging and I was like, this is something I can do," said Montano after the race.

Montano said she knew she wouldn't win the race, but she just wanted to show the world what it's like for a female champion to be pregnant.

Despite the extra burden, Montano still finished only 35 seconds behind her personal best time of 1:57:34 set back in 2010.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.