Combining motherhood with high-level sport has always been a major challenge for female athletes, who historically have had to choose between starting a family or having a successful career in high-level competition. A conciliation that was unattainable for many years. Now, women have said enough, encouraged by pioneering leaders who stand out in their sports disciplines after giving birth, such as Ona Carbonell, Maialen Chourraut or Blanca Manchón, who have recently been champions for motherhood having a space away from the discrimination suffered by women. system.
Following a meeting held by the Maternity and Sports Commission of the Spanish Olympic Committee, headed by Ona Carbonell, a series of proposals will be submitted to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to benefit athletes who have recently become mothers, with an eye toward the next Olympic Games in Paris 2024.
The main request will be that babies up to 18 months old can have access to the Olympic Village, as well as enabling a breastfeeding room so that they can breastfeed normally. And currently, only female athletes have accreditation to access the Olympic facilities, which is why they are forced to stay away from their children during the time the event lasts.
Without going any further, Carbonell herself, who has emerged as one of the most vocal figures of maternal conciliation in high-level sports, celebrated her son Kai’s first birthday by video call from the Tokyo Olympic Village. Days later she announced her retirement to, among other challenges, focus her efforts on making motherhood visible in sport.
Frozen ‘Ranking’
Beyond having minimal facilities, they will also request that these instances have a team of professionals so that, while the mothers are training or competing, the babies can be cared for at all times, as if it were any daycare center. Another of their big concerns is the freezing of the ‘ranking’. Many of them decide not to take the step towards motherhood because they lose any qualifying privileges during the months of pregnancy and subsequent breastfeeding.
For this reason, work has been done to present homogeneous regulations to international federations that ensure the freezing of the position in the ranking of those athletes who decide to become mothers. A necessary measure to avoid cases like those of Serena Williams or Naomi Osaka, who went from being at the top of the rankings to disappearing from the limelight. And just for exercising their right to be mothers.
All these proposals will be raised by Pau Gasol, member of the IOC Athletes’ Committee, who will give even more weight to requests that aim to solve one of the great taboos of women’s sports.
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