Mallory Weggemann Says She Manifested Winning First Paralympic Gold as a Mom: 'What We Dreamed Of' (Exclusive) 

Mallory Weggemann is winning as a mom!

The 35-year-old Paralympic swimmer picked up her fourth career gold medal on Saturday, Aug. 31 in the 200-meter IM S7, and she tells PEOPLE she couldn’t have done it without her 17-month-old daughter Charlotte or her husband, Jay Snyder.

“I feel like that outcome had been in motion for so long that there wasn't a lot of surprise for me,” Weggemann tells PEOPLE in an exclusive interview. “And it's weird to say that, but I had a level of calmness coming into these games that I've never had before, and I felt so grounded in every aspect of this journey of knowing why it is that I'm here, knowing what it is that we're seeking to do, and knowing that at the end of the day when I go back to the hotel and I'm back with my husband and our daughter, whatever it is that happens at that pool, it doesn't matter.”

Weggemann continues, “I mean, I've never wanted this more than I have as an athlete. I've never wanted so deeply to have that moment, but I also have the freedom in knowing that I don't need it. And nothing about this moment defines me anymore than what I was a week ago. I'm not a different person because I went out and won my fourth gold medal.”

But she did just that on Saturday, winning her event and setting a new Paralympic record in 2:53.29 — and leaving her competitors way back in her wake, Katie Ledecky-style.

“It's still setting in,” Weggemann tells PEOPLE two days later. “Yeah, it has moments where it feels real, the moments where it's like, ‘Oh, it did happen?’ ” 

The star swimmer had circled the date on her calendar, manifesting the moment she would successfully defend her 200-meter IM Tokyo Paralympics gold.

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“Everything about the 31st was what we had dreamed of,” she says. “I wanted to defend my Paralympic gold, but I also wanted to do it with my family. And I wanted to be able to look into the stands and see my husband Jay and our daughter Charlotte, and know that we did this as a unit.”

After finishing prelims on Saturday, Weggemann went back to the hotel and swapped her swimming cap for her mom hat.

“I put Charlotte down for her nap,” she tells PEOPLE. “I breastfed her. I got to just be mom during the afternoon, and I went back to the pool that night for finals. I played it over my head hundreds of times of putting that vision into the world, but nothing prepares you for the actual moment, and there's nothing like seeing them in the stands.”

When Weggemann and her husband welcomed little Charlotte Ann into the world on March 16, 2023, it was the culmination of a long IVF journey.

They had successfully navigated Snyder’s male-factor infertility as well as the timing of Weggemann's training schedule for her Paralympic swimming career.

Now, Weggemann is tasked with balancing her dual roles as athlete and mom — but she says she wouldn’t have it any other way, crediting her daughter with giving her newfound “perspective.”

The standout swimmer has two more races left, the 50-meter freestyle and the 50-meter butterfly, and she has a template to follow as she eyes more gold.

“There's nothing like breastfeeding and getting [Charlotte] to bed at night to wake up in the middle of the night to breastfeeding as she's teething, to then getting up in the morning and racing to coming home from racing to breastfeeding again, never in my wildest dreams,” she says. “I think as an elite athlete, that's how I prepare for competition. But I would argue that for these games, that's our secret sauce. We're sticking to it.”

To learn more about all the Olympic champions and Paralympic hopefuls, come to people.com to check out ongoing coverage before, during and after the games. Watch the Paris Paralympics, beginning Aug. 28, on NBC and Peacock.