WNBA star Cheyenne Parker-Tyus has made a sensational return to the court just months after giving birth.
Parker-Tyus and her husband Keevin welcomed their son Yoshua on July 1.
And while she has yet to play for the Las Vegas Aces this season, the team announced on Tuesday that she was active for their matchup against the Chicago Sky.
‘Cheyenne Parker-Tyus plays basketball today!,’ the team captioned an Instagram post of her warming up.
Parker-Tyus, who also shares daughter Naomi with her husband, previously spoke to the Associated Press about her plans to return quickly after her latest pregnancy.
She set a target date of September 9 to get back on the court – Tuesday’s date exactly – and achieved that goal.
Cheyenne Parker-Tyus gave birth to her son Joshua on July 1 – and is already back on the court
Parker-Tyus hasn’t played yet this season but is set to play for the Aces against the Sky
‘I did the research to see how quickly people came back,’ Parker-Tyus told the AP. ‘Can it be done?, I always have the mindset that I’m built differently.’
Parker-Tyus gave birth to Naomi via C-section in 2021, but believes that her natural delivery of Yoshua helped her get back on the court sooner.
‘Most of the time you have to wait six weeks to start training, but I started at four weeks, so I think that kind of gave me a little bit of an edge,’ she said.
‘I was able to start a little sooner to just do the little things like getting back to my core.’
The WNBA veteran, who ultimately signed with the Aces in the offseason while pregnant, said she was concerned that the team wouldn’t be interested in her when she had preliminary discussions with them.
Her friend, fellow WNBA player Dearica Hamby, has an ongoing lawsuit against the team, in which she’s accused them of discrimination against her during her pregnancy.
Parker-Tyus is seen on the sideline before the Aces’ game on Sunday vs. the Sky
Hamby also sued the WNBA over the matter, but that lawsuit was dismissed by a federal judge in May. And Parker-Tyus’ pregnancy was fully embraced by the organization.
‘I know she was nervous as she broke down in tears,’ Aces coach Becky Hammon told the AP. ‘We were all crying. It was actually a pretty cool moment. At the end of the day, bringing a baby into the world that’s amazing.’
‘We just said, ‘we’ll wait for you.’ We look at her as a long term piece. It wasn’t just for this year. Like, we want we want to build that relationship with her, and give her an environment that she can really flourish in.’
The one-time All-Star, who has averaged 9.1 points per game over her career, will re-join the Aces with the team 28-14 and second in the Western Conference.
She re-posted a slew of supportive messages from others to her Instagram story after the news of her return broke, and also shared a message of her own on top of a video of her newborn son sleeping.
‘He don’t know it yet, but mama finally gets to play basketball again,’ she wrote.
