Recent allegations by WNBA player Dearica Hamby that her coach harassed her for being pregnant have shined a renewed spotlight on one of the biggest challenges that female professional athletes face.
FILE - Los Angeles Sparks forward Dearica Hamby drives to the basket while being guarded by Phoenix Mercury forward Michaela Onyenwere during a WNBA basketball game May 19, 2023, in Los Angeles. Recent allegations by Hamby that her coach harassed her for being pregnant have shined a renewed spotlight on one of the biggest challenges that female professional athletes face.
Juggling the demands of parenthood with those of a professional sports career is just one of myriad challenges female athletes face in an industry that also has beenharassment and bullying in the 27 years since the WNBA, the first women’s professional sports league, was formed. Women have never been formally banned from the WNBA for getting pregnant; in fact, the first player to sign with the league in 1997, Sheryl Swoopes, was expecting when she did so. But pregnant athletes have encountered attitudes ranging from ambivalent to outright hostile from leagues, coaches, fellow players and sponsors throughout the years.for slashing their pay and then dropping them for becoming pregnant.
“We’re light years ahead of where we were, you know, 20-some years ago in terms of people understanding that they have to support women's rights,” Thorne said. Still, “there is pressure on you as the athlete, as the coach, as that person, that woman either starting their family or having kids, to get back to their job" soon after giving birth.
“There's always this little asterisk, that it has to be after your eighth year of service to get" fertility benefits, said four-time WNBA All-Star Breanna Stewart, who plays for the New York Liberty and has a 2-year-old daughter with her wife. Stewart's wife is pregnant with their second child now. “Female athletes shouldn’t have to give up motherhood because they want to be an athlete,” said Dr. Kathryn Ackerman, a sports medicine physician based in Boston and the co-chair of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s women’s health task force.
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