For moms who choose to breastfeed their babies, it’s basically a full-time job. And many have actual jobs as well, which makes breastfeeding even more of a challenge. While all moms are encouraged to breastfeed their babies, there are a lot of societal barriers that make it extremely hard for many. Elite athletes, like the ones who are competing at this year’s Olympic Games in Paris, face the same challenges as regular moms, but this year they have one less hurdle.
Thanks to fellow athlete moms, there is now a nursery in the Olympic village. Now breastfeeding moms (and all parents!) will have a much easier time breastfeeding their babies while pursuing gold medals.
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This is the first Olympic Village Nursery in Olympic history
A week before the torch was lit to start the Paris Games, the Olympic Village Nursery was opened. It was launched thanks to the International Olympic Committee Athletes’ Commission in partnership with the IOC and Paris 2024 Organizing Committee.
Athletes can book private or shared appointments in the nursery, which is right in the heart of Village Plaza. There are private rooms for breastfeeding as well as a lounge for playtime and a changing station.
Olympian moms are thrilled at this inclusion
The inclusion of the nursery is a stark contrast from the facilities nursing moms had previously. During the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, which were held in 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, nursing moms had a dark, windowless room to nurse their babies. And some moms weren’t even allowed to bring their babies because of COVID-19 restrictions.
“It was very important to us to have our little baby,” Greek Paralympian Katerina Polychronidis Patroni, whose husband is also an athlete, told CNN. “I can’t imagine how else we would have gone to Tokyo.”
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Breastfeeding moms at the Games are setting an example of what women athletes are capable of
Images of French judo star Clarisse Agbégnénou breastfeeding her daughter Athéna while training at the gym for the Olympics have been making the rounds as a part of the praise for the new initiative.
Agbégnénou won the bronze medal for judo and triumphantly held the toddler up to the adoring home crowd.
“I want women athletes who follow me to feel free and legitimate, to break codes, to change mentalities, and change the rules. We can have a life as a woman and mother as well as champion at the same time,” she said in an interview ahead of the games.
The fight for breastfeeding moms and parents at the Olympics has been a hard-fought battle
Kim Gaucher, a Canadian basketball player and mom, spoke out in 2021 about not being able to bring her breastfed baby with her to Tokyo.
“Right now, I am being forced to decide between being a breastfeeding mom or an Olympic athlete. I can’t have them both,” she said in an Instagram video. “Japanese fans are going to be in attendance, the arenas are going to be half full, but I will not have access to my daughter? … It’s 2021. Let’s make working moms normal.”
Other athlete moms, including USWNT soccer star Alex Morgan, fought to push the Tokyo 2020 Organizing Committee to allow Olympian parents to bring their children with them to the games that year.
The Olympian moms have fellow mom athlete Allyson Felix to thank
One of the biggest fighters for the Olympic Village Nursery is Allyson Felix, a track and field star and 11-time Olympic medalist who is on the IOC Athletes’ Commission. Felix has a partnership with US company Pampers, who sponsored the project to create the nursery.
“The Olympic Games environment comes with a lot of complexity and pressures, and one way to offer relief is to make it easier on athletes to spend time with their babies and young children without leaving the Athletes’ Village. I’m so pleased to partner with Pampers to make the Village Nursery a reality for the next generation of athletes who are chasing their dreams while also choosing parenthood,” Felix, who is now a mom of two, said in a statement to CNN.
