Motherhood is not an impediment for elite athletes

Does two weeks Serena Williams, the most successful player in world tennis announced her retirement, quite emotional, the youngest of the Herman Williams stated that, although she loves to play tennis, she is at a point in her life when her daughter Olympiad He claims her all the time and that has touched her a lot.

With those words, Serena said goodbye to the US Open, in a magical setting for her: with her daughter, her family and the fans cheering her on.

In an interview given to Times, in early September, Serena commented that her firstborn made a wish, to be the older sister. Olympiad she wants a brother, and the 40-year-old Williams hopes to make it happen.

The youngest of the Williams sisters, who won 23 Grand Slams in individual, 14 in doubles and two in mixed, she decided, she left her sports career to dedicate herself to her other great role, that of mother.

But Serena is not the only high-performance athlete who is thinking of procreating, there is currently a ‘boom’ of pregnant women or new mothers.

In the list, the tennis players also appear Angelique Kerber, Elina Svitolina and Victoria Azarenka, as well as the retired Maria Sharapova, Caroline Wozniacki, Andrea Petkovic and Anna Ivanovic.

They, together with the golfer Brittany Lincicome and the soccer players Daniela Henao, Alex Morgan y Sydney Leroux, are some of those who are debuting or repeating as mothers.

a hormonal issue

In professional disciplines such as tennis or golf, athletes who decide to become mothers have some licenses in which they do not lose their position in the ranking while they are out of competition.

That was what happened to the Colombian María José Uribe, who during the pandemic had her son and after great physical effort to recover sports form, was able to represent Colombia at the Tokyo Olympics.

“Fortunately, the Lpga circuit has a nursery-school system and we mothers can travel with our children to several tournaments so as not to separate ourselves so much from them”, commented Uribe.

The técnico Iván Vargas, who has lived the entire process with skater Fabriana Arias, He maintains that, although for a high-performance athlete the times out of concentrations and training are minimal, in the case of the athlete, the incentive of having her son has been fundamental.

“Fabriana has always been outstanding, outstanding, but now I see a happier athlete, eager to be a world champion, to have greater achievements to dedicate to her son. Definitely the athletes who are mothers do have that plus, that incentive, that internal force that drives them to be better and always give more”.

Monica Sarai Arango, the psychologist and athlete of synchronized swimming, maintains that in biological terms women are very hormonal and therefore, during pregnancy and especially during childbirth, a lot of oxytocin is released that generates a strong impact on performance because it produces high performance sports by themes of strength, power, energy and motivation.

“In artistic swimming, for example, women when they are in the process of breastfeeding they begin to have a large and favorable body modification because they lose weight, the muscles are more marked and there is a decrease in fat, something that favors a lot to have better results”.

Monica stated that, in addition to psychological women feel stronger to face new challenges, a broader capacity for adaptation, learn to manage time better, become more strategic, more sensitive and with greater empathy, these factors make performance increase and also give better results