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Nike Told Me to Dream Crazy, Until I Wanted a Baby

Being a mother and a champion was a crazy dream. It didn’t have to be.

Max Cantor and

Alysia Montaño is an Olympic runner and three-time U.S. national champion.

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Maternity Leave for Athletes? Just Do It

Olympic runner Alysia Montaño had accomplished all her dreams but one: being a mom. When she finally went for it, she faced her biggest challenge yet — her sponsors.

If we show emotion, we’re called dramatic. If we want to play against men, we’re nuts. If we dream of equal opportunity, delusional, and if we want to be an athlete and a mother, well that’s just crazy. No, seriously it’s not a good idea. Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything. Like maybe your contract, your pay. Even if you have to watch them roll out an ad campaign praising women like you, and preaching the importance of taking a stand. Pro sports and motherhood. That’s just crazy. The sports industry allows for men to have a full career. And when a woman decides to have a baby, it pushes women out at their prime. I’m Alysia Montaño. I’m an Olympian. I’m a national champion, and I’ve been one of the top three runners in the entire world. And I’m a mother. Make way for Prince Aster! My daughter Linnéa is four years old and my son Aster is one and a half. When I was pregnant with Linnéa I kept training. I even ran in a big race. And it was a pretty big deal. They called me the pregnant runner. “Why this race was so important for you to run eight months pregnant?” I wanted to turn stereotypes about pregnancy upside down. Exercising through pregnancy is great for both the mom and the baby and I wanted to show people that you can be a mother and still have a successful career, even in sports. I was sponsored by Nike. And then, when I told them that I wanted to have a baby during my career they told me And we’re not just up against our sponsors. The U.S. Olympic Committee And this just makes our comeback even harder. So I left Nike and I went to ASICS. I had my daughter. And when I was on my return and trying to recover from my pregnancy, They also I was pissed. I was very upset at the fact that there was not a policy in place that would protect me. And I fought tooth and nail to make sure that this would not happen to other women. I started a maternity leave legislation so we would not lose our health insurance. I taped my abs together because they were torn apart. I wore a brace as I’d go and I’d lift to come back within their time frame that they were expected of me. They weren’t sure if I was going to be able to return after my pregnancy. I proved them wrong. I won a national championship at six months postpartum. I won another national championship at 10 months postpartum while still nursing my baby girl. I showed up to the World Championships in Beijing, China, still nursing my daughter and pumped for 10 days so that I can ship my milk back to my daughter in the States. Not having any system in place to protect our female athletes, it puts our health at risk. Our sponsors know this isn’t right, which is why they implement confidentiality clauses that forbid us from talking about the scale of the problem, which prevents us from being able to change it. So companies like Nike tell us to “Dream crazy.” We say, “How about you stop treating our pregnancies like injuries?” Then they tell us to believe in something. We say, “How about maternity leave? How about when you tell my daughter she can achieve anything, you back it up?” If they try to dismiss your pregnancy, if they call it a distraction or an injury, remind them what they told us: That great athletes never back down. That great athletes push the limits of what’s possible both on and off the track. Because that’s the warrior spirit that packs stadiums and sells sneakers. We’re the ones who decide what dreams are crazy. And what dreams make perfect sense. And we’re the ones who tell our daughters the difference between dreams and advertising. Who knows? Maybe being a mother and a champion was a crazy dream. But it didn’t have to be. So come on, Nike, when are you going to start dreaming crazy?

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Olympic runner Alysia Montaño had accomplished all her dreams but one: being a mom. When she finally went for it, she faced her biggest challenge yet — her sponsors.CreditCredit...Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

Update: Following this report, after broad public outcry and a congressional inquiry, Nike announced a new maternity policy for all sponsored athletes on Aug. 12. The new contract guarantees an athlete’s pay and bonuses for 18 months around pregnancy. Three other athletic apparel companies added maternity protections for sponsored athletes.

Many athletic apparel companies, including Nike, claim to elevate female athletes. A commercial released in February received widespread acclaim for spotlighting women at all stages of their careers, from childhood to motherhood. On Mother’s Day this year, Nike released a video promoting gender equality.

But that’s just advertising.

The economics of sports like track and field are different than those of professional sports like basketball or soccer. In track, athletes aren’t paid a salary by a league. Instead, their income comes almost exclusively from sponsorship deals inked with apparel companies like Nike and Asics.

The best of the best can supplement that income with prize money from winning races outright. But the majority of athletes — who are often the breadwinners for their families — sign exclusive five- or six-figure deals that keep them bound to a single company.

For the vast majority of athletes, their sport is a way to earn a decent living by doing what they love and excel at. They don’t get rich.

Sports take a heavy toll on the human body, and sponsors accommodate this with time off for injuries. But rarely do they offer enough time off to have a child.

The four Nike executives who negotiate contracts for track and field athletes are all men.

“Getting pregnant is the kiss of death for a female athlete,” said Phoebe Wright, who was a runner sponsored by Nike from 2010 through 2016. “There’s no way I’d tell Nike if I were pregnant.”

More than a dozen track athletes, agents and others familiar with the business describe a multi-billion-dollar industry that praises women for having families in public — but doesn’t guarantee them a salary during pregnancy and early maternity.

For the Olympian Kara Goucher, the most difficult part of motherhood wasn’t resuming training just a week after childbirth in 2010. It wasn’t even when her doctor told her she must choose: run 120 miles each week or breastfeed her son. Her body couldn’t do both.

The toughest moment was when Ms. Goucher learned that Nike would stop paying her until she started racing again. But she was already pregnant. So, she scheduled a half-marathon three months after she had her son, Colt. Then her son got dangerously ill. Ms. Goucher had to choose again: be with her son or prepare for the race that she hoped would restart her pay.

She kept training. “I felt like I had to leave him in the hospital, just to get out there and run, instead of being with him like a normal mom would,” Ms. Goucher said, crying at the memory. “I’ll never forgive myself for that.”

Nike acknowledged in a statement that some of its sponsored athletes have had their sponsorship payments reduced because of pregnancies. But the company says it changed its approach in 2018 so that athletes are no longer penalized. Nike declined to say if it wrote those changes into its contracts.

According to a 2019 Nike track and field contract shared with The Times, Nike can still reduce an athlete’s pay “for any reason” if the athlete doesn’t meet a specific performance threshold, for example a top five world ranking. There are no exceptions for childbirth, pregnancy or maternity.

Most people who spoke to The Times requested anonymity because they feared retribution, or had signed nondisclosure agreements, which may help explain why these arrangements have persisted.

[The topics new parents are talking about. Evidence-based guidance. Personal stories that matter. Visit NYT Parenting for everything you need to raise thriving babies and kids.]

Many American laws protect the rights of pregnant employees — they can’t be fired, for instance. But, since professional athletes are more like independent contractors, those protections don’t apply.

When Alysia Montaño ran in the 2014 United States Championships while eight months pregnant, she was celebrated as “the pregnant runner.” Privately, she had to fight with her sponsor to keep her paycheck.

Sponsors do sometimes pay new mothers — Serena Williams is branded as a famous example. But those who do get paid often have to beg for the money.

Ms. Goucher made more than a dozen unpaid appearances on behalf of Nike during her high-risk pregnancy. She had to wait more than four months to disclose that she was pregnant, so that Nike could announce it in The Times for Mother’s Day.

These kinds of pressures can lead to health complications. Ms. Goucher, for instance, has suffered from chronic hip injuries ever since she raced the Boston Marathon seven months after childbirth.

“It took such a toll on me mentally and physically, for myself and for my child,” said Ms. Goucher. “Returning to competition so quickly was a bad choice for me. And looking back and knowing that I wasn’t the kind of mother that I want to be — it’s gut wrenching.”

New mothers don’t just deal with their sponsors. Top athletes receive health insurance from The United States Olympic Committee and U.S.A. Track & Field. But that insurance can vanish if women don’t place in the top tier of the nation’s most competitive races. Ms. Goucher and Ms. Montaño both lost their health insurance because they were unable to compete at that level while having their children.

“Some people think women are racing pregnant for themselves,” said Ms. Wright. “It sometimes is, but it’s also because there’s a baby to feed.”

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