Team GB have finally embraced mothers – and they delivered medals

Shortly after winning gold in the women’s team sprint at the Paris Olympics, Katy Marchant rode up to the top of the velodrome boards, picked out her two-year-old son, Arthur, in the crowd, and kissed him. “Nothing will ever top that feeling, to have him watching there made it even more special,” Marchant says. “It was the pinnacle of my career.”

Of the nine Team GB mothers who competed in Paris, seven won medals, highlighting how it is possible to return to the top of a sport after pregnancy. From Amber Rutter’s silver in the women’s skeet to rower Helen Glover sharing her own silver medal success in the women’s four with her three children, never have British mothers at an Olympics been so visible.

Yet it has not always been the case, with many female athletes putting off having babies until after retirement. “It’s a pretty small elite club to be a part of,” Marchant says. “I definitely thought my only option was to have a baby once my career was over. When I started out in cycling and looked ahead to how many Olympics I could try to go to, starting a family was at the end of my career. I’m glad I pushed through and persevered.”

It is a sign of the times that mothers are thriving in high-pressure environments and showing that having a sporting career and raising a family should not be mutually exclusive.

Marchant’s own tale – along with the success stories of Dame Laura Kenny, Britain’s most decorated female Olympian, and road racer Lizzie Deignan – is a world away from the toxic culture that plunged British Cycling into crisis eight years ago, when former technical coach Shane Sutton allegedly told former track cyclist Jess Varnish to “go and have a baby” when she was dropped from the programme (an internal investigation found Sutton had used “inappropriate and discriminatory language” as Varnish’s complaint was upheld).

Which is why UK Sport’s groundbreaking pregnancy pay policy in 2021 felt long overdue. The policy guarantees elite athletes are fully funded throughout their pregnancy and up to nine months postpartum, even if everything else is a bit of a juggling act.

Marchant has been allowed to bring Arthur to training camps, which often means having to cover accommodation costs for him and her husband, while there is also the emotional tug of being away from her child. “I still have the guilt and there are times when I feel terrible,” she says. “But now I look back and I wouldn’t change a thing, but it obviously took a good 12 months to get through that mental battle and accept that it’s all right to still be Katy the athlete.”

Click here to view this content.

British Rowing want to ‘normalise pregnancy and being a mum’

It is a similar situation for British rower Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne, who won bronze in the double sculls with Becky Wilde in Paris – but only after spending an estimated £7,000 on bringing her son Freddie and a childminder to training camps. The frank evidence she gave to a parliamentary committee last October – in which she claimed that pregnancy was treated like an “illness” in sport – was an impetus for change in her own sport.

In the months leading up to Paris, Hodgkins-Byrne and Glover helped shape British Rowing’s maternity policy, which it is set to publish in the coming weeks. “The support since I’ve come back into the team has been incredible,” says Hodgkins-Bryne, who has had regular access to a pelvic floor specialist. “The weights coach has been brilliant in allowing me to do weights at different times to collect Freddie. My coach and doubles partner, equally, when I have childcare issues, allow me to change sessions.”

Hodgkins-Byrne is the first rower in recent memory to return to an Olympic programme as a funded athlete (Glover had all three of her children while she was out of the sport). “I was always going to be a bit of a guinea pig but hopefully I’ve done all that teething and we’ve all learnt collectively from it if anybody else goes through it,” says Hodgkins-Byrne.

“British Rowing actually want to normalise pregnancy and being a mum, which is huge. The fact they took the time to speak to Helen and I rather than just write what they think works actually shows they’re trying to give us a voice and they genuinely care about our experience. This year has been completely different and I feel really positive about it.”

Would she like to feel more supported? “If there was the potential for a fraction of training camps to be covered that would make a huge difference. But the fact we’re allowed to take them to camp is huge. It makes us better athletes.”

Yet UK Sport, the funding agency for British Olympic sport, has a finite pot. “The problem that you could foresee is if too many athletes choose to be pregnant, we don’t have grants for athletes who are able to compete for us,” says Dr Ann Redgrave, British Rowing’s chief medical officer, who drew up the body’s maternity policy. “There’s definitely a bit of trying to work it out still.”

There might still be more problem-solving to do, but Team GB’s supermums have never been more determined to succeed.

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 3 months with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.