Olympian parents: How elite female athletes can stay in the game

A group of international experts will advise the International Olympic Committee on how they can improve gender equity in sports.

Transcript

00:00Most professional athletes wait till they retire to have a baby and so do older women.

00:06So your peak fertile time and your peak age as a professional athlete unfortunately coincide.

00:13How can the sports industry support elite female athletes in choosing to have children and stay in the game?

00:21Associate Professor Deirdre McGee is one of the experts advising the International Olympic Committee

00:29on how they can improve gender equity in sports.

00:33Women are returning to say league and union, breastfeeding and then playing a contact sport

00:39where they're now at greater risk of an injury to the glandular tissue in their breast

00:44merely because it's taking up much more of the volume of their breast and their breast is bigger.

00:50And ducts are more vulnerable tissue.

00:55One issue is breast injuries in contact sports were rarely recorded or reported.

01:02Previously they were not an area of the body because it was a male body chart

01:07and they were not a type of injury because they're glandular tissue.

01:10So they didn't fit into any category.

01:12So there wasn't, they had to go under another category.

01:16So they just weren't recorded.

01:18The expert group will hand down their guidelines and recommended policy changes

01:23to the International Olympic Committee in 2025.

01:28Even simple things like how to have a, arranging that there's childcare facilities at a training venue

01:35so you can breastfeed and you can have your baby with you.

01:41Those principles will sit down for women at a non-elite level to encourage all women

01:47to be physically active during pregnancy and then postpartum.

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