Ona Carbonell or when mom can also get on the podium: "Before, if you were a mother, they looked at you badly"

• The time of women From Arantxa Sánchez Vicario to Alexia Putellas: three decades of the conquest of Spanish women in sport

Mom goes up to the podium.

She is not a utopia, not anymore.

Some time ago being a mother meant in practice the renunciation of continuing in the elite of the sport.

In the teams it meant the loss of a contract or, what is the same, of a labor right.

The problem, to begin with, is that this right was not recognized as such.

A long struggle of athletes has made it increasingly common to see a champion come back after being a mother, and do it on top of the podium.

, although at the end of his career, has done so at the Eugene World Athletics Championships.

wants to follow his example

, pregnant after the bronze medal at the Tokyo Games, where she also competed after an interruption to be a mother

.

They are pioneers, in parallel to changes such as those that, in Spain, include the new Sports Law, to even adapt training to the breastfeeding periods of future babies of athletes.

There will be many more.

«It must be made visible, because it is still a taboo subject, despite the fact that progress has been made.

There are references that have shown that you can return, that you do not have to give up one of the two things.

But it is necessary to ask for help and change many things.

Ona Carbonell, a reference in one of the most physically demanding sports specialties: synchronized swimming, explains it to this newspaper.

The synchro specialist wanted to recount her experience in the documentary Start Again (Rakuten TV) in order to draw attention to the situation of many athletes who face the dilemma of motherhood.

«I wanted to claim what it means, but I am aware that I have done it from a privileged position, with a favorable work environment, a family with economic possibilities, scholarships... But there are women, and not only athletes, in other fields workers who have not had that luck.

"a few minimums are needed"

«I think that some minimum means are needed -he continues-, and if I can contribute something to the fight to achieve them, then perfect.

I felt it was my responsibility to share my experience and thus pave the way for others who find themselves in this dilemma.

I would have been a mother before, but the reality is that, if you did, they looked at you badly, they thought: 'This one is not going to win anymore'.

I wanted to try it, show that it can be done."

Ona, in addition, did not give up breastfeeding, as other champions have done to speed up their returns: «It happens, and I do not criticize them, of course.

She happened to Serena Williams, for example.

I always thought of the best for my son Kai, because his arrival changes your perspective of everything, and the WHO recommends breast milk ».

Where to breastfeed?

But if motherhood is already something complex, breastfeeding, specifically, much more so.

"It cannot be that there are no rooms set up for an athlete who returns to training after becoming a mother to breastfeed," continues the Catalan swimmer.

Choosing to breastfeed after childbirth is, in fact, an even greater challenge that took the demand to the maximum in the case of Ona, as can be seen in the Rakuten documentary: «When after breastfeeding you have 10 or 11 left hours of maximum physical exhaustion, is when you begin to doubt yourself as a mother and as an athlete.

Hormones are backwards.

«There were several moments -he continues- in which I said that I could not.

Before the Synchro Pre-Olympic, I had already been training for months and I was in the team, but the fatigue was so great that I considered giving up the objective, I lacked the strength.

If I didn't, it was because I had a responsibility with the team to go to Tokyo.

I couldn't leave them."

After

, came

, shortly before a year after Tokyo, last June.

With two children and at 32 years old, Ona has not said no to the Paris Games in 2024. "Right now, it's not ruled out or accepted, I don't have time to think about it," admits this champion who has shown that the elite of sport and motherhood are not mutually exclusive.

Conforms to The Trust Project criteria

Know more