+
upworthy
Health

Elite athletes face unnecessary roadblocks when they get pregnant. Time for that to change.

Elite athletes face unnecessary roadblocks when they get pregnant. Time for that to change.

Many elite athletes are afraid to tell anyone they are pregnant.

Pregnancy is, without a doubt, one of the most amazing physical feats on Earth. A body that builds a baby practically from scratch is badass no matter how you look at it, but unfortunately, it's not always treated that way.

That can be particularly true in fields that focus on peak body performance, such as elite sports.

Professional female athletes are often put in the position of having to choose between their athletic career and starting a family, not merely due to the inherent reality of having kids, but due to unnecessary roadblocks imposed upon them by the powers that be.

Elite track and field star Allyson Felix famously beat Usain Bolt's gold medal count record a mere 10 months after having a baby—prematurely, via emergency c-section after experiencing pre-eclampsia, no less. She also famously took Nike to task for trying to cut her pay by 70% during her pregnancy. Her critique, along with a push from other female athletes and outcry from the public, resulted in Nike creating a new maternity policy for sponsored athletes guaranteeing an athlete’s pay and bonuses for 18 months around pregnancy.


But it's not just corporate sponsors that create obstacles for mom athletes. There is also a lack of supportive maternity policies for elite athletes who get pregnant that create a great deal of fear and uncertainty about their careers.

One issue is that pregnancy often isn't viewed as a normal part of life for an athlete. Canada's Athlete Assistance Program, for example, puts pregnancy in the same category as injury or illness, when it is neither. As Bill Moreau, managing director of sports medicine for the U.S. Olympic Committee in 2012 told NBC, "Pregnancy isn’t a disability.”

Female athletes are often afraid to share that they are pregnant.

Researchers at the University of Alberta conducted a study of what pregnant athletes go through and to determine what kind of policies might best support elite athletes going through the process of having a child. The study authors recruited 20 athletes who had trained or competed at the elite level just before becoming pregnant and talked with them about their experiences.

"They described the complexities related to planning for pregnancy when training," the authors shared in The Conversation. "They told us heartbreaking stories about how they were scared to disclose that they were pregnant over fear they would lose their position on the team, lose funding or even be viewed as less committed to their sport."

"This needs to change," they added.

One athlete in the study shared that there is a very narrow window in which athletes can get pregnant in an Olympic cycle to be successful. Another shared, "I feel like I can’t have open communication [with coaches] because I’m so afraid of what will be taken from me.”

"There's so little support and there's so little value given to pregnant athletes and to women who want to be able to be mothers and compete," study author and professor of kinesiology Tara-Leigh McHugh told the CBC. "We need to start to normalize and value pregnancy … to demonstrate that it is possible and women can actually succeed and thrive as mother athletes."

Plenty of athletes have had record-breaking performances during or after pregnancy. 

Pregnancy does change a woman's body, but the limitations it may impose are temporary.

Kenyan middle-distance runner Faith Kipyegon won the 1500 m gold medal in the 2017 London Olympics, then came back to the Olympics in Tokyo in 2021 and took the gold again—while also breaking the Olympic record for the event. In the four years between those Olympic wins, she had a baby. While she said returning to top athletic form was not easy after pregnancy and childbirth, the physical feat of building a baby clearly did not diminish her athletic abilities.

There have actually been athletes who have won Olympic medals while they were pregnant. And let's not forget Serena Williams winning her record-breaking 23rd grand slam while pregnant. Each sport has different physical demands that may or may not be affected by various stages of pregnancy, but an athlete shouldn't have to fear that having a baby will diminish their opportunities at best or cost them their career at worst.

Athletes face challenges in their field after having a baby as well, especially when rules are imposed without reasonable maternity exceptions. Canadian basketball player Kim Gaucher nearly had to forgo the Toyko Olympics because she was breastfeeding her 3-month-old and family members were not allowed to accompany athletes due to pandemic restrictions. She had to petition for an exception, which took until shortly before the games began to be approved.

Elite athletes need more supportive policies for maternity while training and competing.

The University of Alberta researchers shared recommendations that they said can be implemented immediately. "The development of maternity leave policies and funding structures for parental leave should be a priority for sporting organizations," they wrote. "Providing education to athletes, coaches and organizations about reproductive health should also occur in an effort to normalize pregnancy in sport, and work towards a more inclusive environment for female athletes."

One element of such policy is getting a better understanding, through research, of the impact of athletic training on pregnancy and vice versa.

"We don't have a lot of information about what is safe and beneficial for athletes who are regularly exceeding current recommendations," study co-author Maggie Davenport shared on CBC's Radio Active.

The researchers also pointed out that such policies are vital for young female athletes as they rise in their sports.

"Policies to support pregnant athletes will have a direct impact on all women and girls across all levels of sport," the study authors wrote. "Role models are essential to girls’ continued participation in sport. Young girls need to know that they belong in sport, and that there is a space for them in sport even when they enter their reproductive years."

Indeed, normalizing maternity in sports—and in every field—will open up more opportunities for women, letting them know they won't have to choose between creating a family and pursuing their professions.

Community

How to end hunger, according to the people who face it daily

Here’s what people facing food insecurity want you to know about solving the hunger problem in America

True

Even though America is the world’s wealthiest nation, about 1 in 6 of our neighbors turned to food banks and community programs in order to feed themselves and their families last year. Think about it: More than 9 million children faced hunger in 2021 (1 in 8 children).

In order to solve a problem, we must first understand it. Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization, released its second annual Elevating Voices: Insights Report and turned to the experts—people experiencing hunger—to find out how this issue can be solved once and for all.

Here are the four most important things people facing hunger want you to know.

Keep ReadingShow less
Pets

Family brings home the wrong dog from daycare until their cats saved the day

A quick trip to the vet confirmed the cats' and family's suspicions.

Family accidentally brings wrong dog home but their cats knew

It's not a secret that nearly all golden retrievers are identical. Honestly, magic has to be involved for owners to know which one belongs to them when more than one golden retriever is around. Seriously, how do they all seem have the same face? It's like someone fell asleep on the copy machine when they were being created.

Outside of collars, harnesses and bandanas, immediately identifying the dog that belongs to you has to be a secret skill because at first glance, their personalities are also super similar. That's why it's not surprising when one family dropped off their sweet golden pooch at daycare and to be groomed, they didn't notice the daycare sent out the wrong dog.

See, not even their human parents can tell them apart because when the swapped dog got home, nothing seemed odd to the owners at first. She was freshly groomed so any small differences were quickly brushed off. But this accidental doppelgänger wasn't fooling her feline siblings.

Keep ReadingShow less
via Pexels

A teacher lists his class rules.

The world would be a much better place if humans weren’t so … human. We all fall short of perfection. Common sense is, sadly, not too common. And there’s one guy out there who always manages to screw things up when things start getting good.

Call it Murphy’s law. Call it the great “reason we can’t have nice things.” Call it entropy. It feels like a whole lot of pain could be avoided if we all had just a little bit more sense.

But what if there was one rule that we all agreed to follow to make everyone’s life better? What would this magical rule be?

A Reddit user who goes by the name P4insplatter came to this realization and asked the AskReddit subforum, “What simple rule would fix the world if everyone actually followed it?” They received dozens of simple rules that if everyone got behind would make the world drastically better.

Keep ReadingShow less
Sandra Maria/Youtube, Official Lives & Music Videos/Youtube

You can't not sing this song.

The music of Queen has a profound visceral effect on everyone. Few pieces of art can cause complete strangers to put aside their differences and come together in song, but by golly, “Bohemian Rhapsody” is one of them. It would be cheesy if it weren’t so absolutely beautiful.

This pertains even to non-English-speaking countries, it appears. Recently, thousands of Harry Styles concertgoers in Warsaw, Poland, began cheering as those iconic beginning piano notes penetrated the air.
Keep ReadingShow less

Movie critic Roger Ebert speaking his mind at the Sundance Film Festival.

It’s been ten years since the world lost Roger Ebert to cancer, and his voice is sorely missed. Ebert had a pure love of cinema, and even though he was a film critic in a sweater with a Pulitzer Prize, he wrote and spoke in a way accessible to every man.

He didn’t care if a film was a Hollywood blockbuster or art-house fare; what mattered was whether it deserved his highly-coveted “thumbs up.”

Ebert was an extremely gifted communicator whose interests went far beyond film. In his later years, he often mused about music, politics, and American cultural events with the same eloquence, thoughtfulness and wit.

Keep ReadingShow less
@over40slbmom/TikTok

Feeling nostalgic yet?

It seems like so many iterations of unfettered joy from our childhood haven’t made it to the modern age, and playgrounds are no exception.

Gone are the days of metal slides that scorched the derriere in the summertime, seesaws that doubled as human catapults and the notorious merry-go-rounds that separated the weak from the strong. Good old fashioned character building—safety be damned!

As it turns out, a few of these old relics are still standing. And footage of kids playing at one of these bygone parks is filling adults—particularly Gen Xers—with sweet nostalgia.
Keep ReadingShow less

A couple shares why they decided to leave the United States.

Although it is difficult to tell if there is a trend of Americans moving out of the country, rough estimates show that around 8 million currently live in other countries—double the 4.1 million living abroad in 1999.

The most popular countries for Americans to move to are Mexico, Canada and the United Kingdom, in that order.

A big reason why some are leaving the U.S. is that an increasing number of employers allow people to work abroad. Others are choosing to leave because of cost of living increases and “golden visa” programs. Golden visas offer the chance to get a foreign residency permit by purchasing a house or making a significant investment or donation.

Keep ReadingShow less