Professional soccer player Jess McDonald was traded between six teams in her first five years as a single mom, making it hard to find, let alone pay for, child care in new cities. She and her son, then 8 months old, were often forced to share a hotel room with a teammate, and sometimes she had no choice but to bring him with her to practice.
“If I had a bad game, sometimes my daughter would be blamed for it, and I was like, ‘Oh, did your daughter stay up late at night?'” said the US Women’s National Team player. in a recent interview.
Arizona State basketball coach Charli Turner Thorne had three children without taking maternity leave. And the New York Liberty head coach and former WNBA Player Sandy Brondello, recognizing the difficulties she would face if she were to become pregnant, waited to have children until she retired as a player at age 38.
Juggling the demands of parenthood and those of a professional sports career is just one of the myriad challenges facing female athletes in an industry that has also been plagued by pay disparities, harassment and bullying in the 27 years since the WNBA, the first women’s professional sports league. , It was formed.
The issue once again drew national attention just before the season began, when WNBA player Dearica Hamby said her coach had harassed her for getting pregnant during the season.
Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon, one of the league’s leading figures and a six-time WNBA All-Star, denied bullying Hamby; she said that the player was not changed to the the Angels Sparks because she was pregnant. The trade, she said, “had everything to do with freeing up money to sign free agents.”
Still, Hammon said she may have made a “misstep” by asking Hamby at one point about her pregnancy, noting that the WNBA’s rules “regarding pregnant players and what that looks like within an organization “They should be better defined, shining. a light on the balancing act of having a family and maintaining a professional sports career.
Women have never been formally banned from the WNBA for getting pregnant; in fact, the first player to sign with the league in 1997, Sheryl Swoopes, was pregnant when she did. But pregnant athletes have been met with attitudes ranging from ambivalence to outright hostility from leagues, coaches, fellow players and sponsors over the years.
Recently, in 2019, the Olympic runners Allyson Felix and Kara Goucher spoke out against Nike for cutting their pay and then leaving them for getting pregnant. And professional women’s leagues have taken years to provide their athletes with the support systems they need to balance family and professional obligations.
“I’ve been walking on eggshells as a mom in this league since day 1,” said McDonald, who last week announced her second pregnancy.
McDonald said that in 2012 she trained for up to two weeks before giving birth; It wasn’t until last year that players in the league were guaranteed paid maternity leave. Thorne, from the state of Arizona, told the access point she once returned to work just two days after giving birth.
“We’re light years from where we were, you know, about 20 years ago in terms of people understanding that they have to support women’s rights,” Thorne said. Still, “there’s pressure on you as an athlete, as a coach, as that person, that woman who either starts her family or has kids, to go back to her job” soon after giving birth.
Under the WNBA’s most recent collective bargaining agreement, which was ratified in 2020, league members receive their full salary during maternity leave, though each player has to individually negotiate the length of her leave. During the season, players with children under the age of 13 can receive up to $5,000 a year for paid childcare and a two-bedroom apartment.
A small number of elite veteran athletes who have played eight or more seasons may be reimbursed up to $20,000 per year for costs directly related to adoption, surrogacy, egg freezing, or other fertility treatments. Per player, the amount is limited to a total of $60,000. Compared to other industries, this is a progressive offering that is inclusive of LGBTQ+ athletes.
“We’ve made progress and everything,” Thorne said, but added that the leagues still have a long way to go to support female athletes becoming mothers.
“There’s always this little asterisk, which has to be after your eighth year of service to get” fertility benefits, said four-time WNBA All-Star Breanna Stewart, who plays for New York Liberty and has a 2-year-old son. years. daughter with her wife Stewart’s wife is pregnant with her second child now.
Stewart said childcare stipends aren’t given freely without demanding something in return: She said she and other players must submit itemized receipts for necessities such as diapers and babysitters. “If you don’t go to them, they don’t give it to you,” Stewart said. “You have to go and send invoices and it’s a little more complicated than it seems.”
Faced with these challenges, many women in sports, like Brondello, decide to have children after retirement, or to forgo parenthood altogether.
“Athletes shouldn’t have to give up motherhood because they want to be an athlete,” said Dr. Kathryn Ackerman, a Boston-based sports medicine physician and co-chair of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s women’s health task force. .us
Ackerman said there is a fear that when female athletes become mothers, they may not value being an athlete as much. She said that’s a fallacy.
The record books are full of examples of female athletes who became mothers and went on to perform at the highest level.
former tennis star Serena Williams famously won a Grand Slam when she was around eight weeks pregnant. Professional swimmers, runners, and basketball players have competed during pregnancy—beach volleyball player Kerri Walsh Jennings even won Olympic medals.
Mothers “are often better athletes because they learn to manage their time better, they understand their bodies better,” Ackerman said. “And they may be peaking even later in life.”
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Associated Press basketball journalist Doug Feinberg in New York contributed to this report.
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