Here we go again. Why is it always a surprise that a professional female athlete can remain at the top of her game as a mother?"Just three months after the birth of her first child, Davenport became an instant and almost shocking success".
What is shocking about Lindsay Davenport serving it up to some of her most challenging opponents post-birth considering her widely held status as a 'natural athlete' with a 'lethal groundstroke'? Who is sounding the death knell of the careers of professional female sportswomen just because they fall pregnant?
This is not a new story. The critics sang the praises Jana Rawlinson (who did a 30 min run on the day she gave birth) upon winning gold last month in Osaka after many months of speculation that she would give up her sport. Paula Radcliffe, world champion marathon runner, was similarly subject to whispers that her desire for competition would wane as soon as she announced her pregnancy. At the time, Radcliffe said:
"What has surprised me most is that people ask if I will carry on competing," she said. "This is especially surprising, as I have said I want to carry on until 2012. And this news means it is more likely rather than less likely that I will do that."
Rawlinson, Radcliffe and of course, Aussie marathoner and winner of Commonwealth gold, Kerryn McCann have all proven that mothers can still win races.
So why are sporting critics consistently surprised that someone like Lindsay Davenport would be unable to continue achieving in tennis?
"Now she returns as a devoted, full-time mom, those punishing groundstrokes still intact. Embrace the sight while you can".
Give me a break. Davenport has many, many years of experience and 'natural' talent. Pregnancy actually gives professional female athletes a bit of a break from their hardcore training and their bodies can rest so it is no wonder that so many women come storming back into their favoured sport, renewed and energised by motherhood. Professional athletes are supposed to be selfish, obsessively devoted to training and with a vision only of winning. Mothers, in contrast, are seen as being antithetical to athleticism. Represented as selflessly devoted to their babies, 'soft' and hormonal, the thought that a professional athlete could revive her body from the 'trauma' of pregnancy and birth is a constant source of discussion for all the majority of male sports writers.
Lindsay Davenport didn't have her arm cut off. She had a baby. Get over it!
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