Athletes can be moms, too

Seventy percent less. This is what Nike intended to pay Allyson Felix during her pregnancy. On top of that, they refused to guarantee any payment if her performance declined as a brand ambassador during the pregnancy. Plus, Nike offered no maternity protection. But Felix did not let the company take her motherhood dreams down.

“Camryn [Felix’s daughter], you are my inspiration, you don’t know how you changed my world,” Felix said during the March renaming ceremony of USC’s track and field in her honor. “You helped me find my voice.”

In track and field, athletes don’t receive a monthly salary like in other sports. They rely on sponsors - like Nike. It didn’t matter that Allyson Felix was the most decorated track and field athlete in history. If she could not get any guarantees during her pregnancy, then the support around less well-known athletes is even more lacking.

Such treatment of women athletes is widespread across dozens of individual or collective, winter or summer sports. Athletes encounter these difficulties in pursuing their careers when they decide it is time for them to become mothers.

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In recent years, there has been growing awareness of the inequalities that women athletes face when they become pregnant. Compared to injuries, pregnancy can sometimes be seen as a setback for female athletes. Leading to a loss of sponsorship deals, reduced pay, surprise trades, and a lack of support from teams and sports leagues. But access to equal rights for pregnant women athletes is also a matter of health and safety, with essential support and access to adequate medical care.

No athletes - or very few - go through their careers without an injury sidelining them. Injuries are part of each sport, and teams must adapt to it, even when it concerns high-profile and star athletes. But athletes can recover and come back to their teams. Injuries can go from a few weeks to long months, sometimes hitting up to a year. So, why is it different with pregnancies?

Pregnancies are natural in the course of life. In 2020, 87% of babies had mothers aged 20-34, an age group that corresponds with most of the high streak in an athlete’s career. And pregnancy is not only nine months. Medical, mental health, and childcare resources are sometimes needed as soon as the baby is born.

“They’ll be pregnant, they’ll have their baby, they’ll come right back. No, there’s postpartum. There’s everything that comes after it,” said Megan Reyes, social media specialist and athlete advocate. “There’s making sure that they have adequate resources and help available to make that adjustment a lot easier.”

Being pregnant can sometimes mean the end of a successful career. It sometimes leaves athletes with difficult choices to make.

USC alumna and decorated Olympian Allyson Felix celebrates the renaming of USC's track and field arena in her honor.

“So many athletes have to make a decision,” Reyes said. “It’s either: retire and quit playing and start my family or I put off my dreams of having a family for however long that may be because I can’t do both.”

Some athletes are now challenging that obstacle like Allyson Felix did. After poor treatment by Nike, Felix told the world all about it in a column published in the New York Times. “And the attention led to far-reaching changes into maternal policies,” USC president Carol Folt said during USC’s track and field renaming ceremony in honor of Felix.

“When she found her professional sponsorship options were not matching her worth, she co-created and is president of her footwear company,” Folt added. Saysh, her brand that she wore at her last Olympic Games in Tokyo. With them, she won a gold and a bronze medal.

After losing Felix in 2017, one of its most well-known ambassadors, Nike, changed their pregnancy policy. But in 2019, a video put Nike again in a delicate position after Alysia Montano published a video in collaboration with the New York Times. In the video, she described how Nike said they would pause her contract and stop paying her if she got pregnant.

Seth Rubinroit

This video led to another backslash of multiple athletes, from decorated American women runners, including Montaño, Kara Goucher, and Phoebe Wright, and pushed Nike to adopt a more progressive pregnancy policy.

Nike new contract reads that “if athlete becomes pregnant, Nike may not apply any performance-related reductions (if any) for a consecutive period of 18 months," six months more than their post-Felix policy. “Athletes have to expose the problem publicly before things change,” said Seth Rubinroit, NBC’s sports and Olympic podcast producer.

Other brands followed and switched their policies to be more inclusive toward women athletes. But for most brands, these policies stay hidden under non-disclosure agreements. “They won’t release them if they know things are far from being perfect,” Rubinroit added.

Nike, Adidas, Brooks, Under Armor, Hoka One One, and Puma did not respond to emails seeking an interview.

After sponsors, professional sports leagues also turned toward more progressive pregnancy policies to support their athletes. The first was the Women’s National Basketball Association. In 2020, the WNBA signed its new collective bargaining agreement.

The eight-year contract includes changes dealing with motherhood. Players will earn 100% of their salary on maternity leave, compared to only half before. They’ll receive an annual stipend of $5,000 and a two-bedroom apartment. Finally, veteran players will be eligible for reimbursements up to $60,000 for adoption, surrogacy, oocyte cryopreservation and fertility treatments.

Megan Reyes

“These two leagues are the top ones in the United States,” Reyes said. “It was definitely time for them to make a move.” The National Women’s Soccer League followed up and ratified its first-ever collective bargaining agreement in January 2022. Players on maternity leave will be paid their entire weekly wage and any other remuneration and benefits for the first 14 weeks. Then it drops to two-thirds of the salary. Athletes will also be granted eight weeks of parental leave.

Neither league guarantees protection against teams ending contracts or trading the player. “There is still room left for improvement, especially against trades,” Reyes said.

As for sponsors, getting anyone to speak on the subject still seems complicated. Neither league responded. Nor did any WNBA team. And for the NWSL, three answered and mentioned that they didn’t have this “issue” on their roster.

Even the Portland Thorns, a team that partners with a U.S. fertility clinic to allow their players to freeze their eggs, one of the most advanced teams in the league, did not respond to a request for an interview.

The new policies for sponsors and leagues are a big step forward for women athletes. However, having a baby requires a mother to dedicate extensive time outside of sports, juggling motherhood with extensive traveling and team responsibilities.

“We’re seeing more and more athletes not just coming back after giving birth but really thriving,” Rubinroit said. “I think it’s inspiring the next generation and showing you don’t need to choose motherhood or elite competition. You could have both.”

But having both is challenging. And to help with that, initiatives support athletes who are also moms—an aspect where Felix was one of the first to help.

The track and field star did more than create her own shoe brand. “Having Camryin started my advocating journey for women’s athletes, and I’m far from being done,” said Felix. Athleta, her clothing sponsor, and the Women’s Sports Foundation created the Power of She Fund: Child Care Grants.

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“These initiatives are the reason things change. All it takes is one person to make a move,” said Alan Abrahamson, associate professor at USC. Abrahamson spent more than 20 years covering the Olympics and created 3 Wire Sports, a website centered around the Olympic Games.

The goal of the WSF? Providing $10,000 grants to female athletes to help with childcare expenses so they can continue to train and compete. And the foundation already awarded more than $200,000 in grants. “Now that we’ve kicked off this initiative, the path is just to continue into doing bigger things,” said Shana Aparicio, community impact manager at the WSF.

After setting up the child care grants program, Felix kicked off an initiative with Athlete and the non-profit &Mother to provide free child care during the 2022 U.S. Track and Field championships to athletes, coaches, and staff. “Athletes should be able to combine competition and motherhood. It’s also a healthy balance,” said Felix.

Six years ago, when Felix dealt with the Nike representatives, they were all men. And she firmly believes the discussion could have been different if women sat at that table. “Maybe the history would have been different,” Felix said.

Perceptions of pregnancies can differ. And how they should be treated often depends on who makes the decision. “I think more women in leadership and decision-making positions that can advocate for what women athletes need,” Reyes said. “If we continue to have men in positions of power that don’t quite understand what would be the athlete’s best interest in this particular scenario, they’re not going to understand, right?”

Athletes Unlimited, a sports league based in New York, is trying to reinvent how athletes can participate in their sports at a high-level while also managing their careers. “Our whole model is athletes first,” said Hilary Meyer, senior vice president of impact at Athletes Unlimited. “We have no owners. We have no coaches. Our athletes are the ones in the driver’s seat.”

A unique model, the league’s four sports athletes can participate in basketball, softball, lacrosse, and volleyball and make a difference on every level.

The league’s pregnancy policy is unmatched and one of the most advanced in the professional leagues in the United States. “There have been a number of instances, of course, where pregnant athletes have been discriminated against or lost contracts,” Meyer said. “We wanted to make it clear that that was very much antithetical to Athletes Unlimited.”

All athletes under contract are entitled to unlimited paid parental leave during the season, regardless of pregnancy, birth, or adoption. Players are also not required to notify the league or the team doctor of their pregnancy, allowing them to choose when they wish to stop playing with no penalty. “We sought to design a policy that would be fully inclusive of athletes who were parents and those who want to become parents,” Meyer said.

Hilary Meyer

Athletes Unlimited also accommodate mothers who need childcare when traveling and competing, allowing them to return to competition. “We work one-on-one with the athletes to figure out the best solution for them,” Meyer said. “Either have a caregiver at the competition site with them or give a financial stipend for caregiving needs if they have to leave their child back in their home city.”

Athletes Unlimited have attracted more than 150 athletes in less than three years. But despite its attractive model, competing against major leagues like the WNBA remains a massive obstacle. “These leagues are the future, but money will always be a strong motivator for some athletes,” Abrahamson said.

With the steps leagues and sponsors are making, women athletes have better access to pregnancy while pursuing motherhood.

“It sometimes feels like baby steps, but I feel like we are finally advancing towards something that can be durable and still has a lot of room for improvement,” said Reyes.