Are We Forcing Women to Choose Between the Olympics and Motherhood?

U.S. First Lady Dr. Jill Biden congratulates the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Women’s Basketball team

The Tokyo 2020 Olympics are being touted as the “first ever gender-balanced Olympic Games in history,” according to the International Olympic Committee (IOC). We did some digging, and we are happy to see that this is mostly true: a record 49% of participating athletes are women, there’s an increase in women’s leadership within the IOC, and the IOC has promised to ensure equal visibility between women’s and men’s events in this year’s games.

But while the IOC has made some pretty significant strides toward gender representation, we can’t afford to rest on our (Olympic) laurels. As we look ahead to the 2024 Olympic games and beyond, we must continue to spot, and break down, barriers to equal gender representation in sports.

This year, several Olympic athletes are speaking out against one such barrier that has prevented too many women from competing in the sports they love: outdated expectations for birthing parents.

A Childbearing Penalty

Most top-performing athletes rely on sponsorships as their main source of income, but for birthing parents this has served to add an extra layer of fear and uncertainty to motherhood.

Often, sponsorship contracts stipulate that the athlete must hit specific performance criteria and must be actively participating in their sport in order to get paid, with no exceptions for pregnancy or postpartum recovery. In fact, in a report published by espnW, 41% percent of surveyed mothers across a wide range of sports said their income decreased when they became a parent. Clearly, women athletes are being forced to choose between their paycheck and parenthood.

And it’s not just their income that’s taking a hit. The U.S. Olympic committee strips health insurance coverage from athletes who do not remain elite in their sport, with no regard to pregnancy. In 2019, this led to U.S. sprinter Alysia Montano and distance runner Kara Goucher losing health insurance while pregnant because they were unable to compete. This is truly unacceptable.

The Childcare Hurdle

American sprinter Allyson Felix (far left) in 2017

Though some athletes are able to negotiate sponsorships that include stipends for childcare while they train for and compete in the Olympics, others lack access to this type of support. For those athletes without corporate sponsors or with sponsors that are less than accommodating, the cost of attending the Olympics combined with the cost of childcare can put the Games out of reach.

After her own battle for maternity protections with Nike, U.S. Olympic track and field athlete Allyson Felix is fighting the childcare barrier head on for Olympic moms. Together with her sponsor, Athleta, Felix launched the Power of She Fund which will provide $200,000 in childcare grants to mothers headed to Tokyo to compete. Each grant recipient will receive $10,000 to “provide the resources and support that mom-athletes need to focus on excelling in their careers.”

Baby Steps

As more women speak up about the challenges of being an athlete and a mother, we’re already seeing change.

Earlier this year, the IOC had declared a ban on foreign spectators for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, including athletes’ families, in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. For some mothers, this meant choosing between participating in the Olympics and breastfeeding their children, but after several athletes petitioned against this exclusionary rule, the IOC finally reversed the decision on June 30.

We’re also seeing progress outside of the Olympics. In January 2020, the WNBA Players Association successfully negotiated for policies that include a guarantee of fully paid maternity leave, standardized accommodations for nursing and pumping, a $5,000 annual stipend for childcare, and more. Since their success, other associations such as the NWSL Players Association and Athletes Unlimited have unveiled their own increased maternity protections.

When we remove the barriers that force women to choose between their athletic career and motherhood, we pave the way for more women’s representation in sports across the board. There’s clearly a long way to go, but every race that’s ever been won has started with the first step.