by Jill Moffatt, Andrea Bundon, Ann Pegoraro and Kerry McGannon, The Dialog
Credit score: Kamaji Ogino/Pexels
Being an athlete whereas additionally being a mom typically comes with challenges. On prime of their skilled and parental duties, athlete moms typically cope with inequalities and media protection that reinforces stereotypes.
Being pregnant and motherhood are the reason why some sportswomen finish their careers. Many athletes grapple with sports activities organizations which can be unprepared to help them as moms, alongside cultural pressures to deal with simply motherhood. But, many athletes have pursued each motherhood and their athletic ambitions and gained skilled success and media consideration.
Acceptance of motherhood and sports activities careers is shifting. The 2024 Paris Olympics supported athlete moms by offering areas for baby care, and moms within the Skilled Girls’s Hockey League are gaining media consideration.
Media protection of athlete moms has been more and more showcasing how they will have profitable sporting careers. It additionally helps to show inequalities as they push for help for his or her careers. These embody restricted details about coaching throughout being pregnant and postpartum, lack of help for household planning, insufficient maternity and child-care insurance policies and inadequate help for identification and profession adjustments.
Athlete moms
Our analysis reveals that sports activities media portrays the concept of being each an athlete and a mom as doable, however with challenges. Athlete moms should typically cope with social expectations that girls ought to do every little thing for his or her youngsters, together with sacrificing profession ambitions.
Our analysis on media tales of boxer Mandy Bujold’s and basketball participant Kim Gaucher’s 2020 Olympic journeys highlights how motherhood is usually a penalty in sport.
Bujold was returning to prime type after giving start, however the pandemic compelled the Worldwide Boxing Federation to cancel all upcoming Olympic qualification occasions. They subsequently reverted to pre-pandemic rankings, which excluded Bujold, as she was on maternity depart.
Gaucher was instructed there could be no youngsters allowed on the Video games. She was compelled to decide on between competing on the Olympics or staying dwelling to breastfeed her daughter. After telling their tales within the media and hiring a lawyer, Bujold retained her rating and Gaucher was in a position to deliver her daughter to the Olympics to breastfeed her.
These two examples spotlight the inequitable remedy and stress athlete moms need to face. In addition they present that motherhood and sport are suitable. When the media elevates sportswomen’s struggle for maternity rights, change is feasible and celebrated.
A CBC information report on Canadian athlete moms’ authorized battle to compete on the Tokyo Olympics.
Tremendous mothers
Our analysis on Olympic athlete moms’ sporting comebacks reveals media tales that includes “super mums” as the celebrities. Tremendous mums are portrayed as selfless suppliers of child-care who excel in motherhood and their athletic careers. The tremendous mum character in media tales celebrates these sportswomen’s accomplishments.
Nevertheless, the tremendous mum narrative may ignore the difficulties of balancing motherhood and sport with out help. There’s a lack of postpartum coaching pointers amongst nationwide and worldwide sporting our bodies, and lack of funding to help athlete moms.
The expectation that they’ve to have the ability to “do it all” could make any mom really feel insufficient.
Canadian freestyle skier Cassie Sharpe just lately spoke in regards to the stress this narrative locations on athlete moms: “When I got pregnant, I kind of was just like ‘that’s all, I’m done.’ At the time in my mind, there was just no way that [a return to competition] was going to work. I was like, ‘I can’t do that. I’m not a superhero.'”
Kenyan Olympic monitor athlete Religion Kipyegon revealed well being points and fears she had when coming again to sport. Kipyegon managed to coach till she was about 5 months pregnant, however the supply was traumatic. She wanted an emergency C-section to ship her daughter. “I was so afraid, [thinking], ‘Maybe I will not come back, I will just disappear,'” she mentioned.
These examples showcase the realities elite athlete moms proceed to face. Sports activities journalist Shireen Ahmed has written about how it’s unreasonable to anticipate athlete moms to be superwomen: “Yes, that is unrealistic, but sometimes that is what we are faced with. It doesn’t always manifest gracefully, but there it is.”
Ahmed’s reporting of athlete moms’ tales is groundbreaking, as she celebrates their athleticism whereas exposing a number of the challenges they face.
A motherhood penalty
Whereas elite girls athletes are applauded for his or her expertise and success, they will additionally face a motherhood penalty within the type of diminished profession expectations and help.
Regardless of having expertise or earlier success, media tales typically signify these athletes as exceptions who come again to their careers in opposition to all odds. This will likely mirror veteran athletes navigating an underestimated, however profitable, postpartum comeback with much less assets.
When older athlete moms do succeed, there’s generally a shock and shock narrative in media protection. This narrative could reinforce stereotypes that motherhood ends health and aggressive sporting objectives.
Veteran Canadian Olympian Malindi Elmore’s marathon operating efficiency certified her for the 2020 Olympics, regardless of her age and her retirement from 1500 m operating 17 years earlier.
Final September, Elmore set a private greatest within the marathon to qualify for Paris 2024 at 43, exhibiting that continued profession success as a mom is feasible.
Altering the way in which these comeback tales are mentioned can cut back stress for veteran athlete moms coming again to sport.
What subsequent?
The themes from our analysis reveals that media tales of motherhood and sport are shifting to have fun girls’s sport careers.
Media tales that mirror the realities of athlete motherhood and extra numerous athlete moms are wanted. There must also be extra protection of racialized and LGBTQ+ moms and athlete moms with disabilities.
Such protection would reveal their shared and distinctive challenges and triumphs, and would provide a extra fulsome portrayal of athlete motherhood.
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Altering the narrative about athlete moms’ comeback tales (2024, December 24)
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