The changing expectations of elite sports mothers

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At the Wimbledon tennis tournament a fairy-tale story is underway as Ukraine's Elina Svitolina beat the top-seeded player Iga Swiatek to reach the semi-final. Not just is Elina an unseeded wild-card entry - more impressively she won all this after 14 months off the circuit following the birth of a baby daughter last year. So how much of a battle is it for women athletes to come back to the elite level after childbirth? Well for insight, Newsday spoke to Chelsea Sodaro - an American triathlete who won the Ironman World championship in 2022 just 18 months after giving birth: "It looks like a fairy tale on paper but... it was really tough for me... I had crippling anxiety and I had a lot of trouble finding mental health support. We're turning a new leaf now in professional sport where we want maternity policies and support through our pregnancy and post-partum return to sport." "It used to be really hard to talk about these things. We were afraid of losing our partners, of losing our sponsorship. We're starting to demand more." (Pic: Elina Svitolina on her way to victory over Iga Swiatek in the ladies quarter-finals at Wimbledon; Credit: Reuters)