Jo Pavey wins 10K European gold, then faces laundry chores

Hope she doesn’t have to wash the flag as well.

Jo Pavey is Supermom. In a wonderful column for The Telegraph in Britain, Jo couldn’t be more down-to-earth if she ate dirt. She writes: “We’ve been away a lot recently, first in Glasgow for the Commonwealth Games and then in Zurich for the European Championships, where I won Gold in the 10,000m. You should see the mountain of laundry we’ve brought back with us. We didn’t have access to any washing machines in Zurich so I had to hand-wash the children’s clothes and dry them on the windowsill.” Gotta love it. Also: “I find it rather amusing that it’s taken me until the age of 40 to win my first gold medal. I only stopped breastfeeding Emily in April, so I thought it was highly unlikely that I’d even qualify for the championships this year. I didn’t compete last season because I was pregnant, and when I started training back in December my body was still in breastfeeding mode and my times on the track were slow.” Not unusual for a mom to be world-class, but a W40 is something to celebrate.