Clarisse Agbégnénou expressed her satisfaction with the solution found by the CNOSF for athletes who will be breastfeeding during the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris. The judo champion praised the availability of rooms in a hotel located near the Olympic village in Saint-Denis.
Whether in the hotel or the Olympic village, athletes who are breastfeeding their children, like Clarisse Agbégnénou, will have the choice of accommodation during the Olympics. “Anything works for me as long as I can stay with my daughter,” said the judoka. After becoming a mother in June 2022, the 31-year-old athlete, who aims to win her second individual Olympic title in Paris, has been accompanied by her daughter everywhere she goes.
In January, she took advantage of Emmanuel Macron’s visit to the Insep to make a personal request to the president: she wanted her daughter to be with her at the Olympic village. However, due to regulations, her daughter cannot sleep in the sacred village, but the French Olympic Committee has proposed a solution: rooms in a hotel located near the Olympic village in Saint-Denis will be available for athletes who are breastfeeding.
On Friday, the six-time world champion in the -63 kg category expressed her satisfaction with this solution. “Anything works for me as long as I can stay with my daughter. So if they offer me to stay at the hotel in the evenings so I can be with my daughter and sleep with her, it’s a solution that works for me,” commented Agbégnénou to a few French media outlets on the sidelines of a reception at the French embassy in Japan, where the French team is currently conducting a training camp.
“To take into account parenthood,”
“To put things into context, I decided to breastfeed my daughter until she weans herself. That hasn’t happened yet, so I’m following her. I made sure that I could feel physically well, because there is a part of fatigue, but there is also the high-level athlete in me. But as a mom who needs to be very present for my daughter, I asked to have the possibility of having my daughter with me during the Olympic Games,” she continued.
“These will be my third Games and I know how things work. We are all together so I didn’t want to disturb the other girls, but I couldn’t imagine doing these Games without my daughter knowing that I still breastfeed her.” According to Astrid Guyart, Secretary General of the French Olympic Committee (CNOSF), this solution presented at the end of February aims to offer “the best conditions for balance” to competitors and to “take into account parenthood.”
There will also be a 100 m2 family space in this hotel where parents can spend time with their children of any age. This unprecedented initiative will start from the opening of the village on July 18, 2024, and is expected to make life easier for young mother athletes trying to balance high-level sports careers with motherhood.
“Insufficient knowledge,”
Also a mother of a young girl, British judoka Nekuda Smythe-Davis applauded Agbégnénou for bringing this issue to the forefront. “She has had her daughter with her from the beginning, so I don’t see why the Olympics would be different,” she told AFP last February.
“It may seem a bit strange because no one has done it before her, but I think she is paving the way. Someone always has to do things first to make us realize: ‘Oh okay, we can actually do things differently.”
The 30-year-old world medalist explained that she stopped breastfeeding when she resumed training on medical advice. “But seeing Clarisse, I think there might have been another way to do it. I think there is a lack of knowledge on the subject because few people have done it. So it’s amazing that she is breaking stereotypes. If I could do it again, maybe I would have breastfed longer. I wish I had known it was possible.” For Sarah-Léonie Cysique, Olympic runner-up in Tokyo in the -57 kg category, “if someday I have the desire to combine the two, I see that it’s possible.”
