‘Why not wait until you’re retired?’: Sportswomen still facing questions over motherhood
Chelsea player Melanie Leupolz is a one-off in her team and a rarity in women’s professional sport. She’s a mum.
A mum who came back to her sport at an elite level after giving birth.
But the 29-year-old German international and Olympic gold medallist had to answer plenty of questions about her decision to take time out and start a family.
“At the beginning, I got some comments like how can you start a family at your prime time of being a footballer, why did you not wait until you retired?
“I didn’t listen, I knew what I wanted – a child and playing football as well – and everything was possible.”
And it was possible because Chelsea has a progressive attitude towards women’s health, helped no doubt by having a female coach in Emma Hayes, herself a mother, who also worked in women’s football in the US, where maternity leave among players is much more common.
“I told Emma straightaway for my safety and for the baby’s safety. So I was training with the team for four months but without any contact.
“They were careful about my heart rate and that I didn’t get the ball into my bump, but I was happy I could come to the training ground and see my teammates and be involved, and they didn’t know at that point.”
Melanie Leupolz. Pic: AP
But she still had to take the best part of a year out from competitive football. Enough time to possibly lose your place, or to lose the focus you once had because of a change in priorities.
Leupolz says she doesn’t think it’s changed her hunger for the game but she admits she is different.
“You change a bit as a person because there’s a big other part of your life. Maybe you see football through different eyes and maybe that helps with the pressure and focus.
“But I still want to win everything! Two months after giving birth I was back with the team and travelling to winter camp. I was fully back in the squad and playing football, it’s amazing how quickly everything went.”
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She was lucky enough to be given a new contract before she left to have her son. So the financial worry was taken away.
Many women still putting off children until end of career
For many athletes in other sports, the financial burden of having a child, travelling the world for tournaments, and taking childcare with you is beyond the finances of all but the top female players.
It’s not surprising that many female athletes put off starting a family until after they’ve retired. Sport is an already short career, and so are the financial rewards.
The most decorated track athlete of all time with 10 Olympic medals, American sprinter Allyson Felix, famously found herself significantly financially worse off when she became pregnant in 2018.
Allyson Felix at the World Athletics Championships in July 2022. Pic: Reuters
Her sponsor Nike reduced her payments by 70%. She ended up dropping them.
She said: “Getting pregnant was known as the kiss of death for Olympic track and field athletes.”
The brand did not treat Serena Williams the same way when she announced her pregnancy after winning the Australian Open in 2017, but perhaps as (arguably) the greatest female player of all time, she had more marketing clout.
Williams also changed the Women’s Tour’s (WTA) maternity rules after speaking out about the lack of protection for female players and pregnancy.
Having been World Number One, Williams returned a year later with a daughter but ranked down at a lowly 451.
Serena Williams with her daughter Alexis in August 2022. Pic: AP
Women in tennis allowed to keep rank during maternity leave
Now players can protect their ranking for their first eight tournaments after having a baby, so they are not starting from scratch, drawing the new World Number One in the first round, with their previous good work still recognised.
But the main challenge for all but the top players in the world is the cost.
Players further down the rankings just don’t earn enough in winnings to support travelling week to week with a nanny.
That would mean paying for extra flights and an extra hotel room. The maths just doesn’t work.
British doubles player and Sky commentator Naomi Broady has struggled to go back to the sport she loves.
Naomi Broady at Wimbledon in July 2018. Pic: Reuters
“It’s pretty impossible, I’d be totally reliant on what I’m earning on court, and then if a parent or my partner can’t travel with me it’s the cost of a nanny as well, so unless you’re earning serious top dollar then it’s just not achievable.”
Certainly becoming a mother seems less of a challenge if you are part of a team and have the backing of your club.
Leupolz admits she has had to make sacrifices and has had to think and plan a few steps ahead to make it work, like any other working mother in any other walk of life.
Attitudes to athletes starting families while still playing their sport are slowly changing.
But even she won’t be adding to her family until after she hangs up her boots.
The first known victim of serial paedophile Richard Burrows has told Sky News he regrets not reporting his assault at the time to save others from “falling into the same trap”.
Burrows, 81, will learn his sentence at Chester Crown Court today after being convicted last month of dozens of sexual offences against young boys.
The judge told him it is “inevitable” he might never be released.
The former scout master had spent 27 years on the run, living in what he called “paradise” in Thailand, after stealing the identity of a friend and fleeing the UK when he was due in court in 1997.
A police photo of Burrows from the 1990s. Pic: Cheshire Police
He was arrested when he arrived at Heathrow in March last year.
The trial heard that Burrows had obtained positions of authority and systematically abused boys from the 1960s to the mid-1990s.
He had worked as a housemaster at a school for troubled boys and befriended other youngsters through amateur radio clubs.
One of those was his first victim, aged 14 at the time in the late 1960s, and now 71.
He told Sky News: “It’s been an awfully long time and after 57 years I’ve got to see the results at the end of it.
“It does actually feel like a weight’s been lifted. You hear that expression all through life, but it’s the first time ever really felt it.”
He described Burrows as a “devious, nasty creature”.
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The man, who cannot be identified as he is the victim of a sexual offence, attended Burrows’s trial and delivered a victim impact statement at his sentencing.
He said he wanted to do this because of the regret he carries to this day.
“I wish I’d said something when it happened because I feel that, in retrospect, if I would have said something, then maybe it would have stopped other people from falling into the same trap that I did,” he added.
“But at that time, at that age, I thought I probably wouldn’t have been believed, and I felt too ashamed and embarrassed and even guilty to even mention it to anybody else. So, I didn’t, and I regret not doing that.”
Photos of Burrows in Thailand. Pic: Cheshire Police
The man contacted police after seeing an appeal for help in finding the fugitive Burrows on the BBC’s Crimewatch programme in 2011. It would be another decade before he was arrested.
He said: “I really begrudge him those 27 years. It’s 27 years and he’s just left a trail of wreckage behind him while he’s enjoying himself.
“It’s a shame he’s not got another 27 years to look forward to in jail.”
Although he was the earliest victim on the indictment at Burrows’s trial, like detectives from Cheshire Police, he believes there could be other victims who have not come forward.
He said: “Personally, I don’t think I was the first victim. I think that he was probably fairly well practiced in the art of what he was doing prior to my meeting him.”
Burrows being met by police at Heathrow. Pic: Cheshire Police
Burrows was initially charged in May 1997 but failed to attend a hearing later that year.
He remained on the wanted list until police using facial recognition software matched him to a man using the name Peter Smith. He had stolen the identity of a terminally ill friend to obtain a passport.
After his conviction in March, judge Steven Everett told Burrows he had caused “untold distress and trauma to the victims and their families”.
The UK has joined US forces in attacking a Houthi target in Yemen for the first time since Donald Trump was re-elected.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed the strikes took place on Tuesday as part of the government’s response to Houthi attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden.
The ministry said careful intelligence analysis identified a cluster of buildings used by the Houthis to manufacture the sort of drones used to attack ships, located 15 miles south of the capital Sanaa.
RAF Typhoon FGR4s conducted strikes on several buildings using Paveway IV precision-guided bombs.
The planes had air refuelling support from Voyager tankers.
The ministry said the strike was conducted after dark to reduce the likelihood of civilians being in the area.
All the aircraft returned safely.
John Healey. Pic: Reuters
Defence Secretary John Healey said: “This government will always act in the interests of our national and economic security.
“Royal Air Force Typhoons have successfully conducted strikes against a Houthi military target in Yemen and all UK aircraft and personnel have returned safely to base.
“We conducted these strikes, supported by the US, to degrade Houthi capabilities and prevent further attacks against UK and international shipping.”
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Houthis a ‘persistent threat’ to ‘freedom of navigation’
Mr Healey said Houthi activities in the Red Sea are a “persistent threat” to “freedom of navigation”.
“A 55% drop in shipping through the Red Sea has already cost billions, fuelling regional instability and risking economic security for families in the UK,” he said.
“The government is steadfast in our commitment to reinforcing global stability and protecting British working people. I am proud of the dedication and professionalism shown by the service men and women involved in this operation.”
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US intensifies strikes on Houthis
It was the first time UK forces have struck a target in Yemen since May last year, the ministry confirmed.
The US has intensified its strikes on the Iran-backed Houthis under Mr Trump’s presidency, after his re-election in November 2024.
The group began launching attacks on shipping routes in November 2023 saying they were in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.
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Footage showing people being pulled from rubble has been released by Houthi rebels in Yemen
The strike came after a Houthi-controlled TV channel claimed a US strike killed 68 people at a detention centre for African migrants in Yemen on Monday.
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