Kudos Paris Olympics for taking care of athletes with infants!

At the Paris Olympic Games scheduled to run between July 26 and August 11, women athletes will take another step forward in their long march towards equality.

For the first time ever, breastfeeding mothers will be allocated designated spaces in a hotel near the athletes’ village for them to feed their children.

They will also be given special rooms where they can sleep with their infants. Their partners and caregivers will be given special passes. And while the athlete's village has never been a child friendly place, this time there will be a special social area for families at the hotel. Talk about supporting the breastfeeding squad!

This comes after a group of athletes led by French judo star Clarisse Agbegneno, who had her first baby two years ago, launched a public campaign for the needs of new mothers to be taken more seriously by sporting governing bodies.

It all began on World Breastfeeding Week in August last year where new athlete mums in France were offered an opportunity to share their experiences about combining early motherhood with elite sports life.

Imagine balancing motherhood with training for the Olympics. It is certainly a whole new ball game. Let’s not pretend that late-night feeds, interrupted sleep, pumping milk and having to eat for two people is easy. Since time immemorial, the Olympics have had this rule that children can’t hang out in the athlete’s village where participants and coaches stay. I guess it comes from the long-held misconception that breastfeeding and high-performance sports are an impossible combination for elite female athletes who have been torn for decades between careers or motherhood. We have been conditioned to write off sportsmen and women when they reach a certain age, and for women, this is usually when they give birth. The assumption is that motherhood presents women athletes with a huge, permanent switch in both their physical ability and mental fortitude that renders them unfit to compete at high levels.

But this notion is about to be quashed in this edition as super mums, who have proved again and again that they can still stay on top of their game after having children, will get a public opportunity to show that it is indeed possible to breastfeed and be competitive.

Expect to see pictures of athletes with well-toned bodies taking breaks every few hours to cradle their children and breastfeed as other athletes continue with their games or training, or of women rushing to the special village after a day of putting opponents on toes, to offer mama’s milk. Special advice to the women from a fellow super mum, don’t forget to carry your shukas and lesos, lest you sweat buckets on the little tots.

The organisers are calling this a “special allowance” for female athletes, and in many ways, it is. But, it is not a “perk”, as multiple news outlets and websites have reported. It is a necessity. Athletes who go to the Olympics with infants in tow have done much more than just “qualify”.

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