The Stigma Surrounding Pregnant Athletes

Professional Triathlete Meredith Kessler and her son. Source: @mbkessler

By: Greta Stuckey

Fifty years ago, women weren’t allowed to compete in marathons or endurance sports. These women being barred from sports were not pregnant. Society accepted the idea that pregnancy meant fragility and many still stigmatize pregnant athletes who compete in endurance sports.

Prior to the 1980s, society thought it was unimaginable for a pregnant woman to do strenuous exercise. Prior to 1970, marathons still restricted the races to male competitors and didn’t allow healthy women to enter.

In 1967, Kathrine Switzer snuck into the Boston Marathon which was restricted to male competitors. Using a gender neutral name, Switzer was the first woman to officially complete the marathon.

“I wanted to do it, I knew it could help women and I knew women deserved it,” Switzer said to ABC News.

Two miles in, Switzer was pushed and grabbed by Jock Semple, a race official who wanted to get her off the course. With the help of a Syracuse teammate, Switzer kept running and completed the marathon in 4 hours and 20 minutes.

“It's about creating a community of women, of how to break down barriers of judgement and limitations and have everybody meet on an equal playing field,” Switzer said to ABC News.

.

Fast forward forty years and women are now competing in all the same endurance sports as men. Not only are they competing, women have dominated the world of endurance sports and a recent study found that women have more muscular endurance than men.

Some women, such as Meredith Kessler have been athletes their entire lives. Growing up, Kessler played soccer, field hockey and lacrosse. In college, she swam and got a scholarship at Syracuse to play field hockey. After graduating, Kessler took up triathlon and competed in her first ever Ironman which is the longest triathlon distance.

After becoming a pro triathlete, Kessler completed over 50 full Ironman races. As a female athlete, Kessler defied the odds of a long-standing myth that claimed women who did strenuous exercise would be infertile and risked the possibility of their uterus falling out. Not only did Kessler compete in Ironman's, but she completed number 60 while pregnant.

“On March 4, 2017, I raced Ironman New Zealand, not knowing I was around four weeks pregnant at the time,” Kessler said to Shape Magazine. “There was a severe lack of stamina that I couldn't pinpoint at the time, but I was thankful to place third. While pregnancy is not ideal as a professional triathlete, being a mom has been a dream of mine for quite some time.”

The pregnancy did not stop Kessler from training. While pregnant, Kessler still exercised three to five hours a day and transitioned from running to higher mileage on the bike and in the pool.

The pregnancy was not easy for Kessler as she faced symptoms of nausea on a daily basis. When running, Kessler also experienced severe pelvic pain and was recommended by her doctor to dial back the running due to the high-impact it has on the body.

“Staying very active throughout pregnancy has also genuinely helped me cope with how terrible I can feel for parts of this journey,” Kessler said to Shape Magazine. “In other words, it feels great to move around between sessions spent in a fetal position, cradling my barf bag.”

While high-intensity endurance training often changes after becoming pregnant, it can still be done in a safe manner. In the past few decades, researchers have found that women who exercise in their pregnancy often provide health benefits to themselves and their child. Despite the research, many people criticize pro athletes and women who do high-intensity exercise during their pregnancy because they believe the child is being harmed.

50 years ago, women were getting kicked out of races simply for their gender. Being looked at as fragile and weak, women faced challenges to enter the world of endurance sports. Today, women like Kessler compete at the highest level of endurance sports, sometimes while pregnant and find continued success in their health postpartum.