As all of us around the world celebrated International Women’s Day on the 8th of March, and this made me think back on the many interviews that I have done with female athletes and how I’ve grown more aware of the inherent difficulties female athletes face.
While the path to becoming an elite athlete is never easy, the insight I’ve gained from my conversations with women in sport has made me aware of the additional challenges that female athletes face, and how it can have a serious impact on their careers.
I think the most predominant constraint faced by female athletes is still society’s inherent stereotype of the role of a woman.
In some cultures around the world, women are still expected to get married, have children, and then care for their children, and the thought of pursuing sport beyond a mere hobby or form of exercise is still frowned upon.
Meseret Defar, a two-time Olympic gold medallist in the 5,000m shared with me that initially, her mother did not want her to become an athlete for fear of her safety.
She explained that growing up in Ethiopia, it was very common for girls that participated in sport or who went running in the jungles, to face the threat of getting raped. It was only with her father’s support, Defar preserved and went on to break the 5,000m world record twice in her career.
It is only natural for all athletes to be judged by their physique. After all, sport requires them to tone their bodies in order to be able to achieve remarkable results. However female athletes are more likely to be judged for their physical appearances compared to their male counterparts.
A male athlete can never be too muscular. In fact, the more cut he is, the more he is admired. The same does not apply to females who will get picked on for their less than feminine appearance. Serena Williams is one such athlete who has spoken up against being body shamed.
Canadian pole vaulter Alysha Newman opened up about how having a curvy physique has led to a lot of people judging her for her looks rather than her performance. Some went even as far as to tell her that she would never be successful because she was too curvy and too pretty.
Newman confessed how these comments led to insecurities within her and it was a tough mental journey to overcome it and in the end, she opts to answer her critics with her results.
The 26-year-old won gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and now has her sights set on becoming the first female pole vaulter from Canada to win an Olympic medal. But her story highlights the additional hurdles a female athlete faces in the pursuit of a sporting career.
The idea of starting a family while actively competing is still a big dilemma faced by women in sport today. Female athletes fear that getting pregnant and having children could mean the end of their sporting careers.
Often, their best biological chance of conceiving clashes with being in the prime of their sporting career. And so there are many athletes I’ve spoken with who take family planning to the next level.
Olympians live life according to a four-year-cycle that revolves around each edition of the Games, and some female athletes attempt to time their pregnancies around that.
This usually means conceiving after an Olympics so that they can give birth and slowly ease back into training in time to be back at their best for the next edition of the Games. I don’t need to tell you how stressful that can be.
That being said, there are some great examples of female athletes who have started a family and not only returned to the sport but continued to excel at the highest level.
American sprinter Allyson Felix returned to the track after giving birth to win two more world titles, and in doing so, she surpassed Usain Bolt for the most world titles by any athlete in history.
India’s boxing queen Mary Kom, is another great example. She gave birth to twins in 2007 and a year later she won the gold at the world championships. In 2013 she had her third child and has since added a sixth world championship title to her name.
The 38-year-old also qualified for Tokyo 2020 is determined to win another Olympic medal.
And while these remarkable feats are great stories of encouragement, let's not forget that taking time off to have a family amongst female athletes is still the exception.
So as we all celebrate women across the world, my hope is for more to be done within our country, to help bridge the inequality gap so we encourage more young Malaysian girls out there to dream of pursuing a path of excellence in sport. - The Vibes, 13 March, 2021
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