It’s┬аbeen eight years since Chinese swimmer┬аFu Yuanhui┬аtold the media she’d had her period.
Fu, who had just missed the podium in the┬а4×100-metre medley relay women final at the 2016 Rio Games, coming in fourth, told China’s┬аstate-run broadcaster CCTV:┬а“Actually, my period started yesterday evening.”┬а
“That’s why I feel very weak and tired, but this is not an excuse. At the end of the day, I simply did not swim very well,” Fu said, breaking taboos and the internet as she became an overnight social media sensation for her frankness.
WATCH | Fu talks about her period:┬а
Today, the Paris Olympics┬аtouts┬аitself┬аas the┬аfirst to achieve full gender parity, with an equal number of female and male competitors. The Olympic Village has its┬аfirst official nursery, and is also stocked with menstruation products. The brand Always has┬аbeen named the Games’ 2024 official period product.┬аMultiple marketing campaigns┬аare encouraging athletes to talk about menstruation.
Many athletes are, including U.S. rugby player Ilona┬аMaher тАФ who, in a TikTok┬аvideo she posted Tuesday, said she’s not even expecting her period, but still┬аbrought “like, 50 tampons, and five pairs of period panties” to Paris.
And then there’s Canadian wrestler Linda Morais, who recently told CTV┬аthat this year’s Team Canada singlet has a dark red bottom, which she called┬а“a great idea, so that way girls are less self-conscious in case they’re ever worried about a leak.”
But even with more athletes talking about periods, we’re still a long way from de-stigmatizing them and the challenges people who menstruate┬аface┬аin sports,┬аAllison Sandmeyer-Graves, CEO of the national organization┬аCanadian Women &┬аSport, told CBC News.
“The stigma around periods is so strong,┬аand it is so pervasive, that it is a really hard┬аthing to change,”┬аSandmeyer-Graves said.
“But one of the only ways to change that┬аis through conversation and really moving it from this thing┬аthat has for so long felt secret, and in some cases very shameful,┬аinto the light.”
‘Rolling around┬аon the floor in pain’
Periods in general have historically been taboo, and in sports they just weren’t talked about┬атАФ unless the conversation was about amenorrhea┬аin young, female athletes, like gymnasts, due to a low body fat percentage, Michele Donnelly,┬аa sport management associate professor┬аat Brock University in St. Catharines, Ont., told CBC┬аNews.
“It’s kind of astonishing that it took until the 2020s to realize, ‘Oh, it might be uncomfortable for women┬аathletes to be in a sport where they’re expected to wear white shorts or white bottoms while they’re competing while they have their period,'” Donnelly said.
“There’s a┬аdistraction of athletes┬аthinking,┬а‘Oh my gosh, will people know? Will I bleed through my shorts?'”
Information Radio – MB9:17Canadian brand paying female athletes to talk about their periods
Susan Auch, 58, a former national team Olympic speed skater and three-time Olympic medal winner, told CBC Radio’s┬а Information Morning Manitoba earlier this┬аweek that, in her past sport experience,┬аit was┬а“super rare” for┬аathletes to talk about periods, even with each other.
“It is an issue, right? It’s difficult as an┬аathlete,” Auch said. “I think it’s great that a conversation is happening.”
Auch, who represented Canada in speed skating for 17 years, says there were times her period┬аaffected her as an athlete. Once, at a┬аCanadian championship, she says she pushed herself so┬аhard in a race that┬аshe saw stars. Adding her period on top of that physical exertion was┬аtoo much, she said.
“I was rolling around┬аon the floor in pain. It was shocking to me.”
In recent years, more athletes have started speaking out about menstruation, including┬аFrench┬аOlympic handball champion┬аEstelle Nze Minko┬аand┬аIsrael marathon runner┬аLonah Chemtai Salpeter, who said her cramps were so bad at the Tokyo Olympics┬аthat┬аshe had to stop to take a break during her race.
“Women тАФ we struggle sometimes with this kind of situation. Not every day is good for us because every month we receive this period and some ladies, they’re OK with it, and some are not good with it,” she said, according to Runners World.
Periods limit participation
Most sports research has focused on men. As such,┬аthere aren’t a lot of studies that look specifically at the impact of menstruation on sports performance.
One study, published in 2022 in the journal Science and Medicine in Football,┬аfound menstruation had “a clear negative impact on performance” in the 15 elite players the researchers interviewed, including fatigue and focus.
In another┬а2022 study, Canadian┬аWomen & Sport┬аfound that 25 per cent of the 4,500 people surveyed said menstruation limits their sport participation.┬аStudies also show that girls drop out of organized sport at more than twice the rate that boys do, and that menstruation is one of the biggest obstacles.
To adapt,┬аsome sports are making changes.┬аFor instance, women’s soccer teams have been swapping out white shorts, as┬аnew research shows that women’s teams who play in white perform worse. Last year,┬аTeam Canada’s┬аgame kit┬аat the Women’s World Cup featured┬аa new Nike product┬аwith a liner designed to limit period leaks.
And┬аWimbledon recently changed its white clothing rule for female tennis players, allowing black or dark-coloured┬аundershorts to “help players focus purely on their performance by relieving a potential source of anxiety.”
Even though┬аSandmeyer-Graves says she thinks it’s “unrealistic” that the Paris Games will finally smash┬аperiod taboos completely, she acknowledges that sports can play a huge role in making it more acceptable for people to acknowledge that they have periods and talk about what they need to be supported.
Part of that needs to be dismantling the “pervasive belief” among some female athletes that it’s optimal to train so hard and eat so little that you stop having periods altogether, she said.┬а
That condition,┬аsometimes called exercise-induced amenorrhea, has been linked with┬аcardiovascular disease and decreased┬аbone health.┬а
“We know that sport can shift culture in really important ways,” she said.
“A healthy period is┬аpart of a┬аhealthy body.”