Priscilla Lopes-Schliep twirls around the kitchen to a thumping J-Lo song, balancing her daughter Nataliya on one hip. The little girl clutches her mom's strong shoulders and erupts in giggles, her mouth stretched in a wide smile.

This is the softer side of the fierce athlete.

Motherhood agrees with the former world No. 1-ranked hurdler, who ran Canada's fastest time in her event last year just nine months after giving birth to Nataliya.

And she's about to do it again.

The 30-year-old from Whitby, Ont., and husband Bronsen Schliep are expecting their second child, deciding to expand their family now following a health scare.

But Lopes-Schliep has no intention of retiring, and in fact has her sights set squarely on the 2016 Olympic podium.

"I'm definitely looking forward to coming back and proving you can do it having two babies," Lopes-Schliep says in a recent interview. "I know it's going to be harder because now it's not only one, it's two little munchkins running around.

"But I'm ready for the next challenge. And I hope everyone who has supported me, my sponsors, and people who have been behind from before until now will continue to be behind me now until the next one. I'm not going to give anything less than I have in the past."