Athletes have pushed the limits at this year’s Paris Olympics, as new research reveals just how far women can go during pregnancy.
Many Olympic athletes share their feats, trials, victories and disappointments. Last week, Nada Hafez, from Egyptshared a little more after finishing his fencing test.
The athlete revealed that I had been practicing fencing for two years and that, in fact, she had been pregnant for seven months.
“What seems to you like two fencers on the podium, There were actually three!“Hafez wrote under an emotional photo of him during the fight. “It was me, my competitor and my little babywhich has not yet reached our world.”
Hafez’s best result in three Olympics
The mother and baby finished the competition in 16th place, Hafez’s best result in three Olympics.
A day later, too It was revealed on Instagram that an Azerbaijani archer She had competed six and a half months pregnant. Yaylagul Ramazanova He told the Chinese agency ‘Xinhua News’ that he had felt your baby’s kicks before shooting, and that I had gotten a 10, the maximum number of points.
There have already been Olympics and pregnant paralympians, although the phenomenon is rare for obvious reasons. In most cases, it is athletes who have competed long before of becoming pregnant, or who didn’t even know they were pregnant.
For example, American beach volleyball starKerri Walsh Jenningswho won his third gold medal while pregnant five weeks pregnant with her third child without knowing it.
“When I was fearlessly throwing my body and going for gold for our country, I was pregnant“he declared on the ‘Today’ show after the London Olympic Games in 2012.
She and her husband Casey, too beach volleyball playerthey had started trying to conceive just before the Olympicshe said, thinking it would take time. But she felt different, and her volleyball teammate Misty May-Treanor He told her, “You’re probably pregnant.”
Is it safe to exercise while pregnant?
According to an expert, it is logical that pregnant athletes are now pushing the limits, since both attitudes and knowledge about what women can do during pregnancy They are evolving.
“It’s something we see more and more,” says the doctor Kathryn Ackermandoctor specializing in sports medicine and co-chair of the women’s health task force of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee. “Women are dismantling the myth that pregnant women cannot train nor compete at a very high level,” he says.
Ackerman points out that there is little data, so Previous decisions in this regard have often been arbitrary. “Doctors recommend that if an athlete is in good condition before pregnancy, and there are no complications, it is safe to exercise,” she says.
Both in fencing, says Ackerman, of BostonAs in other sports, There must be protections for athletes, and in less hectic sports, such as archery or sports shooting, There is absolutely no reason a woman can’t compete.
An emotional issue
It’s not just a question of fitness, of course. It’s a deeply emotional issue.. Deciding whether and how to compete while raising a family is a thorny calculation that male athletes do not have to consider, at least to the same extent.
If not, ask them Serena Williams, who won the Australian Open in 2017 pregnant with her first child. About five years later, when she wanted to try to have a second, he left tennis an unbearable decision for her.
ADVERTISINGChoose between tennis or family
“Believe me, I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family“wrote Williams –winner of four Olympic golds– in an essay for Vogue. “I don’t think it’s fair. If I were a man, I wouldn’t be writing this because I’d be out there playing.”
Williams welcomed Adira River Ohanian in 2023who joined her eldest daughter: Olympia. That was the same name that the mother of the American softball player also suggested. Michele Granger for the baby Granger was carrying when she pitched her gold medal-winning game in Atlanta in 1996.
Her husband suggested the name Athena. Granger preferred neither. “I didn’t want to make that connection with his name,” Granger told ‘Gold Country’ Media in 2011. The baby was named Kady.
The choice of combine motherhood with a sports career It involves many factors, without a doubt, that vary depending on the sport and the country. Franchina MartÃnez, 24 years old, who competes in athletics for the Dominican Republicsays that in her country there are more female athletes who retire early than male athletes, and one of the reasons is pregnancy.
ADVERTISING“When they get pregnant, They believe that they will not be able to return, unlike what happens in more developed countries, where they could,” explains MartÃnez. “So they leave the sport, they don’t compete again or they aren’t the same.”
For the sake of her career, she said, she doesn’t plan to have children in the near future: “As long as I can avoid it for the sake of my sport, I’ll postpone it because I’m not ready yet. for it.”
Courage and determination
At the fencing grounds Paristhe fans mixed the weekend between admiration for the Hafez’s bravery and determinationa 26-year-old former gymnast with a medical degree, and speculation about whether it was risky.
“There are certainly less aggressive sports,” said Pauline Dutertre, a 29-year-old athlete, sitting in front of the elegant Grand Palais during a break from the action with her father, Christian. Dutertre competed on the international saber circuit until 2013. “At the end of the day, it’s a combat sport.”
ADVERTISING“In any case,” he noted, “He is brave. Even without getting on the podiumwhat she did was brave.” Marilyne Barbey, who attended the fencing competition from Annecy, in southeastern France, with his family, he also wondered about safety, but added: “You can fall anywherewhenever. And, in the end, it’s his choice.”
Ramazanova, who was visibly pregnant when she competed, also earned admirationeven from her colleagues.
“Really great”
Casey Kaufhold, an American athlete who won bronze in the mixed team category, said it was “really cool“seeing his Azerbaijani colleague achieve what he did.
“I think it’s incredible that every time we see more pregnant women at the Olympic Games and it’s great to have one in the sport of archery,” he told The Associated Press.
ADVERTISING“He shot very well, and I think it’s great because my coach is also a mother and has done a lot to support her children even while she is away.” Kaufhold hoped that Ramazanova’s career will inspire more mothers and mothers-to-be to compete. And she had a more personal thought for the future mother:
“I think it’s amazing for this goalkeeper that one day she can tell her son, ‘Hey, I went to the Olympics and you were there too,'” he concludes.
