'Even if you have children, you can be world class'
Jörg Strohschein pfd
October 4, 2019
German shot putter Christian Schwanitz proved at the World Athletics Championships that mothers can also be successful athletes. Science has shown that competitive sport and pregnancy can be successfully combined.
Image: picture-alliance/Photoshot/J. Yuchen
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Christina Schwanitz was proud and emotional simultaneously. Tears rolled down her cheeks and she sobbed.
"I would like to thank my team for their great support," she said. "None of this would have been possible without these people."
What may have sounded like the usual set of sporting platitudes after an athlete has just won a medal had a much deeper meaning for the 33-year-old German. After all, two years after giving birth to twins, on this Thursday night in Doha, Schwanitz had just completed her journey back to the podium by winning bronze at the World Athletics Championships.
"That's why I made my comeback, to show that even if you have children, you can be world class," she said.
Being an elite-level athlete and becoming a mother are obviously not mutually exclusive. Prior to Schwanitz two other mothers, Jamaica's Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (100 meters) and Allyson Felix from the USA (4x400 meter mixed relay), had already won medals in Doha after returning to their sports after taking time off to have their children. And the fact that Schwanitz was able to achieve her goal was not as unlikely as it may seem at first glance – scientific evidence shows that it is doable.
Coming back requires discipline
"If it is an uncomplicated pregnancy, you can continue (training) until the end of the pregnancy and maintain a high standard of fitness. Afterwards you can return to your former level of performance and sometimes even exceed it. However, this demands a great deal of discipline," Lisa Ferrari, a sports scientist at the German Sports University Cologne, told DW.
Ferrari, who has been studying the interaction between competitive sports and pregnancy for quite some time also stressed that every pregnant athlete and her course of pregnancy must be looked at individually. In the best-case scenario, she would have an entire team of doctors, which is usually the case with competitive athletes, who would draw up a training program tailored to the individual needs of that particular athlete.
Stability of the pelvic floor crucial
As a general rule, the intensity of the athlete's training sessions can more or less be roughly maintained after she becomes pregnant.
"Everything that is more than 90 percent of the maximum oxygen intake is not recommended. This is what studies have shown. One should train at about 80 percent, moving to alternative exercises in keeping with the particular physical conditions at play," Ferrari said. Then carrying on with training is not a concern for either mother or child, even if the heart rates of both are elevated during training."
While doctors can determine with great accuracy how long a pregnant women can continue to train, there are many variables when it comes to resuming training after childbirth.
"The stability of the pelvic floor and abdominal wall are crucial factors for starting training again," Ferrari said. The time span before full-load capacity is reached is long and it's almost impossible to influence this through training. Young mothers tend to have to wait between six weeks and eight months before resuming training.
The effort and commitment required to return to competitive sport is very great indeed, which is why after winning her medal in Doha, Christina Schwanitz had a message for other young mothers.
"Many other mothers should see this as an example. Thinking that just because I have a child, I cannot work or take on a leadership role is simply nonsense."
Successful athletes who are also mothers
Shelley Ann Fraser-Pryce, Serena Williams and Marit Björgen are just three athletes who have put their sporting careers on hold in order to have a child. They have all succesfully returned to their sports.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Kappeler
Shelley-Ann Fraser-Pryce
After Shelley-Ann Fraser-Pryce won the 100-meter sprint at the Athletics World Championships in Doha, she celebrated her victory with son Zyon. "It was a long journey," the Jamaican sprinter said of the time it took for her to get back into shape – not only physically but also mentally.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Kappeler
Allyson Felix
Allyson Felix won a record 12th world title and her first since becoming a mother last November, as part of the US team that took the 4x400 meters mixed relay in Doha. After she became pregnant, the six-time Olympic champion got into a dispute with her then-sponsor Nike, which had offered her a 70-percent pay cut as she was forced to take a break from the sport. Felix now has a different sponsor.
Image: picture-alliance/abaca/Emy
Serena Williams
According to her own account, the birth by C-section of daughter Alexis Olympia on September 1, 2017, almost cost the then 36-year-old her life. Since returning to the tennis court following a 13-month break, Williams has reached four Grand Slam finals but hasn’t won any of them.
Image: Reuters/H. McKay
Margaret Court
Margaret Court had a much easier time of it. The 24-time Grand Slam winner, whose record Serena Williams continues to chase, had three children during her playing career, only retiring from the game after she'd become pregnant four a fourth time.
Image: Imago/ZumaPress/Keystone
Marit Björgen
In June 2015 Marit Björgen announced that she was pregnant and would sit out the following World Cup season – with the goal of returning for the 2017 Nordic World Ski Championships in Lahti. After the birth of her son Marius, the Norwegian record world champion went on to win four titles at the 2017 Worlds and a year later she followed this up with two Olympic gold medals in Pyeongchang.
Image: picture-alliance/NTB Scanpix/T. Bendiksby
Therese Alshammar
When the Swedish swimmer put her career on hold due to pregnancy in 2013 she had already won numerous World and European Championship titles, plus three Olympic medals – none of which was gold. Alshammar hasn’t been at the top level since returning to the pool, but she did take part in her sixth Olympic Games in Rio in 2016, when she was Sweden's flag-bearer.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/K. Mayama
Darya Domracheva
Only four months after the birth of her daughter, the star biathlete won the silver medal at the World Championships. The Belarusian followed this success up with several World Cup victories, Olympic silver in the pursuit in 2018 and relay gold. In 2018, Domracheva called time on her career. She now coaches China’s national biathlon team long with her husband Ole Einar Björndalen (pictured).
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/M. Schutt
Kristin Armstrong
US cyclist Kristin Armstrong’s son Lucas looks about as happy as his mother after she won Olympic gold in the time trial at the 2012 Games in London. In doing so, she defended the title she had won in Beijing four years earlier. In Rio in 2016, she made it three consecutive Olympic gold medals in the race against the clock.
Image: picture-alliance/Photoshot/Li Ga
Isabell Werth
Isabell Werth gave birth to son Frederick 10 years ago and now he can say that his mother is the most successful dressage rider in the world, having won six Olympic gold medals, four Olympic silver medals, nine World Championship titles and 20 European championship titles. That’s not to mention several national titles.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/R. Vennenbernd
Heike Drechsler
By the time her son Toni was born in 1989, Heike Drechsler had already won gold medals for East Germany in the long jump at both the World and European Championships. She’d also won gold in the 200 meters at the European Championships. After giving birth, she won Olympic gold for Germany in the long jump in Barcelona in 1992 and Sydney eight years later.
Image: picture-alliance/S. Simon
Kim Clijsters
Soon successful tennis mother Kim Clijsters will be back on the WTA tour. The Belgian knows a thing or two about comebacks: In 2007 she retired at the age of 23. In 2009 she gave birth to a daughter before resuming her career and winning three Grand Slam tournaments. She retired for a second time in 2012. Now a mother of three, she has announced another comeback for 2020.
