July 7, 2022 • 36 mins
At the national team level, countries have ever-deepening talent pools; it’s harder and harder to hold onto your spot. If you get pregnant, that means months on the sideline while a young, hungry replacement is playing in your stead. The mothers who do go for it often face major doubt: it’s dicey to take a chance on a player undergoing both a gigantic physical transformation and a shift in priorities. This is the story of two moms on opposite sides of the world – Australia’s Melissa Barbieri and USA’s Amy Rodriguez – who were cut or traded… and who set out to make a comeback as good as any you’ll find.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
I'm Hannah Waddingham and this is Hustle Rule, an audio
docuseries featuring the untold stories of women's soccer players around
the world, based on the book Under the Lights and
in the Dark, written by Gwendolen Oxenham. When I first
started on Game of Thrones, my baby daughter was only
nine weeks old. I mean, I was so happy to
(00:24):
have landed this role and so confident to be back
on set. But the very first day of shooting, I
had this horrific postpartum reaction. I was literally sobbing on
the floor in the corridor of the hotel, thinking, I
don't think I can walk away from her and leave
her in the room with my friend. But I made
myself get up and do it. And on set, as
(00:46):
I pushed my beloved friend Lina Hedi down the stairs
to start Queen Circe's Walk of Atonement, I could hear
my baby crying behind a building. It was the first
time I'd been away from her, and my body just
like just reacted and I ached to be with her,
And yet I also had that wanting to step up
feeling to just be able to knock it out of
(01:08):
the park where you're like, I am going to be
as good as I was before, maybe even better, and
I'm going to show you so. When I heard the
stories in this episode, I just felt so much of
a connection. No matter what profession you're in, as a mother,
there's that twofold desire to move earth for your child
(01:28):
and to keep your dreams. It's the reason that when
I won my Emmi for ted Lasso, I put it
in my daughter's room because I wanted her to know
that when I leave her, I don't take it lightly
and I will only ever be away for a damn
good reason. In the world of women's soccer, the United States,
Joy Forcett and Carla Overbeck were two of the first
(01:51):
women to have babies and continue playing. They were part
of the United States World Cup winning team, and glossy
magazs san spreads feature them medals around their necks, kids
in their arms. It gave the impression that glowing motherhood
and soccer dominance went hand in hand, but that is
not the global norm. Take a look at the women's
(02:13):
game around the world, and mothers have been few and
far between. The majority of national teams had none. At
the professional level, women's leagues have been marked by low
salaries and instability. It's difficult to make it in the
league's in the first place. Throw in motherhood, and for
most the balance is tipped towards retirement. At a national
(02:36):
team level, countries have ever deepening talent pools. It's harder
and harder to hold onto your spot. If you get pregnant,
that means months on the sideline, all while a young,
hungry replacement is playing where you once were. The mothers
who do go for it often face a climate of doubt.
Coaches think it's too dicey to take a chance on
(02:58):
a player undergoing both a gigantic physical transformation and a
shift in priorities. But for most athletes, there's nothing more
motivating than proving someone wrong. This is the story of
two moms on opposite side of the world who were
cut or traded and then vowed to make a comeback.
(03:19):
I'm running one stuff for nobody. This episode is the
motherload his Gwin, who found this story when she was
(03:41):
taking care of her new baby. So I had a
book deadline. I wrote while my baby slept on my
chest and during crunch time. For two months, every day
I had to hand my newborn to a babysitter and
walk out that door as my three year old held
my leg and asked me not to go. As an athlete,
(04:03):
I learned how to give everything. But then when you're
a mom, you can't necessarily give everything to your work
while being the mom you want to be. But here
are the stories of two women who sure inspired me
to try. Named goalkeeper, Melissa Barbiary had been on the
(04:26):
Australian national team since she was twenty one years old.
She had played in three World Cups and two Olympic
Games she captained the team in. Then she got pregnant.
I wasn't shocked for a little while because we've only
just started trying, like literally first month, and I was
(04:49):
always told that I would have trouble getting pregnant because
of my indometriosis and things like that. So a few
different emotions hit the surface, and basically I was I
was on the way to telling my coach that I
was quite far along and I would have to cease
playing at least competitively immediately. The Australian national team coach
(05:10):
Tom Sermoney was supportive, but during her pregnancy some Money
left the national team and they hired a new coach.
It was a female coach, and I thought, oh, wow,
this is going to be great. We're just gonna go
on leaps and bounds and all the things that we've
been worrying about, and I've been worrying about returning to play.
Would just you know, go so smoothly, And it was
(05:34):
the complete opposite. It was it was harder. Maybe she
was like me where she didn't have any experience with
women having babies, but she just wrote us up completely,
and for whatever reason, I lost all my contracts. They
all just went out the window. But Melissa wasn't ready
(05:57):
to give up. She asked the new national team if
she had come to a camp just fourteen weeks after
giving birth, and usually after cesarean, you're not allowed to
do anything for the first six weeks, so basically I'd
only had maybe six weeks to get myself in any
sort of shape to try and show what progress I
(06:18):
had made post birth. And when I turned into the
training session, the first thing they asked me to do
when I arrived was do a medical screening, which is
fair enough, but one of the things was you had
to do a maximum calf repetition test, and anybody knows
who does calf races for that long. They go dead
and you pretty much maxed out your calf. And then
(06:40):
I went into a training session with one other goalkeeper
and had zero rest time. If I could equate it
to something, it would be like having a hit session,
a H double I T session where your thirty seconds
recovery you were made to jog the entire time, or
sprint and get balls and do all those things. And
(07:00):
at one point I ran to get a ball and
I sprinted up the hill and after doing that maxcalf test,
my my calf went. When I got back into the office,
the first thing the keeper coach said to me was, Oh,
you're actually way ahead than I thought you'd be. But
his look on his face was like, yeah, but I
(07:22):
told you so. I told you like you couldn't do
it because you couldn't even push out a whole session,
And you know, my heart sank, it was broken. They
started talking about coaching and you know, it was really
better if you just start coaching, and I'm like, well,
I don't want to coach yet, Okay, I'm not ready
for that. I cried all the way home, cried when
(07:45):
I got home, cried when I spoke to my husband
and my mom and all that, and you know, just devastated.
Really it was really really hard to fathom. Even so,
she decided to finish her coaching chorus she had started
before even getting pregnant. I got like m v P
of the coaching course, and you know, there were a
(08:06):
few women, but majority guys were just asking me great
questions about, you know, what I want to do and
how I want to progress and things, and I'm like,
I'm not finished playing yet, and a lot of them
saying oh really, and I'm like, yeah, I just I
just want to make the national team again. And sometimes
I cry, and and when I became fit and healthy
(08:28):
after the birth of my daughter, I said, I'm going
to go for a W League contract again, because you
need to play in the W League to be seen.
You can't just do it playing in your state. You
have to be in the national setup to actually be seen.
And so I contacted every single club. I said, do
you need a goalkeeper. Some of the emails were lovely.
(08:48):
They were like, oh no, I've already signed our keepers. Sorry,
but you know, good luck, good on you, and really helpful,
and then others were like, no, thanks too hard basket. Yeah,
we don't need a keeper. When you know that they
don't have a keeper, and I was like, what like
(09:09):
Like I was the captain, I was the number one
goalkeeper before going and having my baby. It was humbling, really,
you know. It was that moment where, well, you thought
you were good, didn't you, But you're not. You're not
that good, and nobody wants to She's not the only
(09:31):
mother to have felt unwanted. On the other side of
the Pacific, Amy Driguez, a US women's national team player
an Olympic gold medalist, faced a similar scenario despite being
one of the best strikers in women's professional soccer the WPS.
(10:00):
Oh goodness, okay, So I found out I was pregnant
back in two thousand and twelve. I had just come
off a great Olympic run. We had brought home the
gold medal. It was the off season. I was home
with my husband. We weren't necessarily trying to have a child,
(10:20):
so when we found out, we were a little bit surprised.
I can remember sitting down at my computer and writing
an email and probably redrafting it several times. I was
about to embark on a brand new season in a
brand new league with Seattle Rain. My heart sank a
little bit thinking I was going to have to have
(10:42):
that conversation with my coach at the time to let
them know that I would be likely out for the
full next year due to a pregnancy. You know, how
do I tell them this? It was so difficult to
turn on the TV and watch my teammates play without me.
In a weird way, pregnancy is kind of like an
injury where you wish you didn't have to sit out.
(11:05):
You wish you could be out on the field, um,
but you just can't. I just knew that I didn't
want to sit out anymore and I wanted to get
back out on the field and lace my boots up.
I had a sit down, breakfast meeting with the coach
of Seattle Rain, Laura Harvey. She actually handed me a
cute little baby onesie that had Seattle Rain on the front.
(11:26):
They were so welcoming to me. I had what I
felt like was faith in me from my current club
and my current club coach. Um. So, leaving that breakfast,
I was on cloud nine and ready to play again
and ready to get back out on the field. Then
about a month later, as we were ready to head
(11:47):
into season, I actually found out the news that I
had been traded, which was so surprising because just I said,
like a month earlier, you know, I was talking game plan,
I was talking, you know, how I was going to
reintegrate with the Seattle team, and I just was not
expecting a trade to come at the time that it did.
Of course, I internalized and I questioned myself, Um, and
(12:07):
you just fight all of those those bad, you know,
voices in your head. I've always been so loyal and
passionate about my teams. You never want to feel like
you weren't wanted by your club team. I felt like
Seattle didn't necessarily want to take the risk on me.
The Seattle team didn't have faith that I was going
to be able to bounce back from pregnancy. But in
(12:30):
spite of those perceptions, in women's athletics, there seems to
be an emerging phenomenon. Mothers who stay in the game
come back faster and stronger than they were pre pregnancy,
and the shift in mental landscape makes some mother a
better player, not worse. Here's what it looked like for Amy.
I gained about thirty five pounds, which the doctor said
(12:52):
I was perfectly fine and healthy, but me being a
professional athlete, and that was really hard to overcome. I
remember thinking, how am I going to run? You? Just
you feel so big and so tired, and everything hurts.
You're not getting any sleep, You're learning how to breastfeed,
so many changes are going on with your body, the
emotional rollercoaster of the hormones. I think I took the
(13:17):
voices that were in my head, you know, telling me
that I wasn't going to be able to bounce back
after pregnancy. I think I took those and almost used
it as fuel to say, well, I'm going to show
you that I shouldn't have been traded. I hit the
gym very hard. I hired personal trainers. A typical training
schedule for me would be anywhere between five and six
(13:39):
am workouts. I would have to try to work out
before my husband went to work because he was the
one staying at home taking care of the baby while
I was working out, and we just juggled it all.
Four months after getting back onto the field, Amy was
invited to the US national team training camp, which starts
with a set of physical fitness tests for the third
(14:00):
or so players invited. They have us to forty yards
sprint times, beat tests, agility tests, vertical jump like you
name it. There was a really aggressive part of me
that just wanted to get after it when we were
getting on the line. Like I would want to win
first place. I wanted to get to the ball first.
(14:20):
I wanted to score all the goals. I can remember
saying to myself, I have nothing to lose. Amy runs
her best times ever and in the forty yard dash
she registered the fastest time on the team. And to
show people that pregnancy wasn't going to change who I
was as a player. In fact, it actually helped me
as a player. I think really took people off guard,
(14:42):
and I felt a lot of support from my teammates.
Amy leaves National camp and then she moves across the
country to her new team in Kansas City, new baby
and toe, and no partner to help as she navigated
a whole new life as a mother and an athlete.
I had all these bad is my whole life packed
in suitcases. My husband's stayed in California working and living
(15:05):
in our full time home, and I was flying into
Kansas City, where I didn't know what apartment when I
was in I didn't have a car. I remember landing
in Kansas, arriving at the player housing and just like
breaking down crying because I was just so overwhelmed and scared.
Whatever shakiness she may have felt off the field, on
(15:28):
the field, it was a different story. In her first game.
She scores, and now the floodgates are open. Let's Kansas
City with the scoring. First score. Year. My first season
back after having Ryan was one of my greatest professional
(15:48):
seasons ever. So do I think that having children actually
helped me become a better goal scorer? I would say yes.
Amy becomes the second leading goal scorer in the league.
She takes Kansas City all the way to the league finals,
where they faced off against a familiar opponent. Ironically, we
(16:09):
actually played against Seattle in the championship that year, which
was the team that had just traded me. Which is
kind of a funny story how things always come full circle.
Jellalis US women's national team is in the stands watching
this today and this will be something she is delighted about.
I ended up scoring both of our goals against the
(16:30):
team that I was just previously traded from. It was
one of the biggest highs that I've had in my career.
What was even more special is that my family got
to come to the game, my little son Ryan in
his FC Kansas City shirt. I remember running out to
them after the game had ended and carrying my son
on the field, and was one of the first times
(16:51):
that the three of us as a little family got
to experience a championship. And it was because of the
hard work that I had put in that made it
all possible. So it was a really cool experience. The
national team coach at the time, Jill Ellis, I remember
her congratulating me. I think she was equally as surprised
at my comeback as a lot of my teammates and
(17:12):
fans and family were. And that actually led me into
the fifteen World Cup year where I was selected at
as one of the players on the roster. Meanwhile, for Melissa,
every single team in the Australian W League had passed
on her, but she kept training. Anyway. My heart is sinking,
(17:34):
it's broken. There's no way I can get a W
League contract because nobody wants me. And then I get
a call from one of the coaches that was on
the coaching course, Ross Aloisi, and Ross Aloisi says to me, look,
I just got asked to do the W League team
in Adelaide, and I remember how passionate you were about
(17:55):
making the national team, and I want you to come
and play for me in Adelaide. And I'm like, oh
my god, I can't believe that. And I said, oh God,
I better ask the husband, and more so my mom
because my mom handles Holly a lot more because my
husband's always out working. And I sat down with him
and I said, look, I want to continue playing. I
(18:17):
want to do this, but I have to move to Adelaide.
And my husband was just looked at me and he said,
if this is what makes you happy, then I'll do it.
We'll do it. We can do it, no problem. I
took Holly with me to Adelaide as soon as I could.
She was about seven or eight months at the time.
(18:39):
Your mom and then Holly. Yeah. Left my husband behind
in Melbourne because he had a job and raised enough
money by selling all my memorially, all my shots or
(19:00):
my gloves, everything I owned, so posters, photos, World Cup jerseys,
cup jerseys from my national team and asking a league
players or men's players and soccer roose for anything that
they could donate to me, And it was really really
lovely experienced how many people just sent me things like
(19:24):
shirts that they swapped with even more famous players than them,
Teams signing shirts, goalkeepers sending me the gloves, their boots,
brush a Dortmund kits. You know, it was endless. Imagine
that selling off your World Cup jerseys just so you
can keep playing. Between our own gear and the stuff
(19:46):
donated by other players, Melissa raised ten dollars, twice as
much money as she'd helped. She gave half of it
to her teammates, who are also struggling to make ends meet.
But that was just the beginning. Melissa's new team, Adelaide United,
wasn't just the bottom of the league. They had not
(20:07):
won a game in four years. They had gone thirty
four games without a win. It was the longest losing
streak in league history. When Melissa arrived, they won three games,
tied four and lost three. The previous season, they'd had
forty goals scored against them in two thousand and thirteen,
(20:27):
Melissa cut that down to fifteen. We didn't make fun
with or anything in terms of where the team had
been and where it was. It was absolutely fantastic, and
it's probably one of the best teams that I've been
involved with because we're all coming from such humble backgrounds
that it really just cemented for me what football was
about and how they all helped me rise Holly. I
(20:50):
remember one training session I had no one to look
after my daughter, and I thought, look, I'll just watch
on the sideline and I'll look after like it won't
be a problem. And then I turned up and friends
one of the girls, her parents are childcare owners. Like literally,
these two people just angels, swept in and I opened
(21:11):
my door and they were already at my door of
my car, and they said, oh, my daughter said that
you need somebody to help look after your daughter today,
and Holly does not go to anyone. I picked her
up out of the car and she flew to the
husband and she just stuck out her arms towards him,
and they were just like these angels that helped look
(21:32):
after Holly. Inside, they changed her nappy and just looked
after like she was one of their own, and was
the first day of my life really. At the end
of the season, she is named Keeper of the Year
for the w League the top division of professional club
level soccer in Australia. That was my second time winning it.
(21:54):
I was in disbelief really, but then I kind of
just thought thank you, and I was extremely grateful for
the opportunity to be playing in adelaide Um. And my
thought went to all the people that told me I couldn't.
It doesn't matter what people tell you. It matters what
you want to do and um, your strength and devotion
(22:17):
to what you want to achieve, UM, that all all
that really matters. It was a victory that got her
back into the mix competing for a spot on the
national team. She remembers a conversation with the goalkeeper coach
after she was awarded Goalkeeper of the Year where he said, congratulations,
but you know that's what happens when you're in a
(22:38):
terrible team. And I said, oh, thanks. I think it's
the real backhanded compliment and and I just thought, okay,
so he's not going to be one to just hand
me my opportunity. UM, so I knew I still had
a battle on my hands. But I got invited to
camps um whenever they had them in Australia. I didn't
(23:02):
make the the Asia Cup team, Um that had us
qualify for the World Cup in two thousand and fifteen. Um,
you know I was left at home for that, and
you know it was upsetting and and sad, but um,
you know it wasn't going to stop me from trying
(23:23):
to make the national team again. I turned up every
day in every session, even when they were telling me,
you know what, you're in this training squad as a number.
You're literally here as a number. We're looking to the
future now. And I'm like, no problem. I'll just turn
up every day, do my job, do it to the
best of my ability, and at the end of the day,
if you don't select me, I've done all I can
(23:45):
and I can hang my gloves up and say I've
done what I can and I'll have no regrets. But
if I don't try, if I don't do everything, if
I don't sacrifice everything, I'll never know and that will
hurt more. I think it's it's a matter of principle,
Like I kind of think, well, if you don't think
(24:06):
I can, then I have to. If you don't think
that I'm capable, then I must. But what I love
about the moments of all the times that they told
me that I couldn't was how humble I became, and
that chip on my shoulder, the ego, if I ever
had one, was completely gone, and I was just grateful
for every moment that I was given to play, to train.
(24:31):
Melissa made the team. Next she had to tell the
two people who had helped her get there the most. Really,
that's what my mom and husband said. Really, are you sure?
I said, yeah, do you have six weeks that you
can live in my house? It was Melissa's fourth World cap.
(24:54):
She is only the second Australian footballer to play in
that many. She go then thinking she'll be a sab
You don't say you're happy to be there because you're not.
You want to play. It's it's a falsehood. But if
you go there wanting to play and you're upset that
you're not playing, and then you you just you just
(25:16):
missed the point of the whole thing. So when I
turned up to that World Cup, I was grateful for
the opportunity. I just wanted to be the best teammate
I could be. I wanted to support the number one goalkeeper.
And then we turned up to the World Cup and
we played and behind closed doors game against Switzerland and
(25:37):
Matilda has suffered a setback in the lead up with
first choice goalkeeper Lydia Williams coming to a hamstring injury.
And so I'm selected to play in the first game
against the USA in my fourth World Cup after having
been told that I was just a number. And this
is one of the reasons why we picked Melissa. Baba
has just got so much experience, so much composure. Great decision.
(25:59):
May I say, you know, we've just gotten someone we
can rely on, meaning that after the isolation of being
a new mom, after the hours of training, after fighting
their way back onto their respective national team rosters, Melissa
Barbieri and Amy Rodriguez would be facing each other in
the two thousand and fifteen World Cup. I remember in
(26:22):
the warm up thinking I'm ready. I've done all the work,
I've worked through everything, and I didn't know if everyone
believed I should be there until in the warm up
when the goalkeeper coach that tried to break me. Um,
you know, when I had Holly came up to me
and said, you deserve to be here. You've I'm sorry
(26:44):
for what I put you through and all this other stuff.
And I made a say even the warm up and
he's life, yea, this is it. You're good. You're good
to go mate um, And I remember thinking, actually, I
think I cried in the warm up because I was like, yeah,
(27:05):
it's and I wasn't ecstatic. I wasn't I was grateful.
I really was grateful, and then I just wanted to
do the best I could and help my team win
the game. The moment I realized this felt good, I
let it out in the national anthem and there's literally
(27:33):
a photo of me belting out the national anthem with
Sammy Kerr. Actually Samy curs at the other end belting
it out with me. Lisa Divan is my captain at
the time. She was a little embarrassed and the kids
in front, their little ball kids in the mascots were
mortified at how loud I was yelling. But that's when
(27:53):
I let it out. That was the feeling of yeah,
all of it, for this, all of it, for this,
and I'll do it all over again for this. St
Australia lost to the US in that game, but both
teams went on to the Round of sixteen and in
the quarterfinals. Amy red Reguez got the start for the
(28:15):
U S in a one nothing victory over China, while
Australia lost to Japan and the US would go on
to win it all. The United States of America are
the two thousand and fifteen World Cup win US on
U five two thousand and fifteen. Like Fawcett over Beck
(28:37):
and the US mothers who came before her, Amy Red
Reguez stood in a shower of confetti, her son in
her arms, a World Cup champion, and we all ran
out onto the field. I can remember that was like
the ultimate highlight of my career. We were playing in
the largest, most important soccer tournament that you could ever
(28:59):
play in, and to know that I was a champion
with my family, with my son inte. I do think
there is a stigma or a thought that women cannot
be both moms and professional athletes. You need to either
choose your career or your family life. And I think
(29:21):
that that goes across so many areas in the workforce.
And I'm so grateful that I had the opportunity to
do both, because I think there are some moms out
there and some women out there that don't have that
choice and don't have that ability. But I love that
we are changing that narrative. Amy retired from pro soccer
(29:47):
this year. As for Melissa, she's still playing in Australia's
top division, which is now called the A League. She's
forty two now and looking back, here's what she thinks.
Going to the Olympics and going to World Cups and
becoming number one goalkeeper of your country is amazing. And
(30:09):
feeling all the highs and lows as an elite athlete
and getting eighty four caps for your country and becoming captain,
and then to have a baby and all that taken
away from you because you've had a baby, because you've
become a mother, is extremely, extremely soul destroying, because women
(30:31):
are so anonymous with having babies, their women, you know,
one of the miracles that we can do, we can
produce babies. And I had everything taken away from me.
I had my captaincy taken away from me, my number
one goalkeeper stripped um, my ability to earn income, everything
(30:52):
was taken away. The only thing I had left was
actually being a mother. And then just trying to piece
yourself back together, trying to understand what makes you tick.
And you're like, yeah, this is what makes me tick.
I love football. I'm a footballer. I'm a goalkeeper. Playing
for my national team is what I want to do,
and playing and mental health for me a sonymous. I
(31:15):
will always play this game. I will always play this game.
Wasn't it going to crowd? What was it going to cry?
I will always play this game because it's so hard.
It's so hard, and you do it and then you
(31:37):
do something amazing and then you're like, wow, I didn't
know I could do that. And even if I'm walking,
and you know, you play that walking soccer with the
bell in the ball just in case you can't hear it,
and thinks you just want to play because I'm not
going to go to the gym. Why do you go
to the gym unless it's to get strong and fast
(31:57):
forward this? You know, I can't do zomba. Zomba is
just not me. And my my husband's like, why why
do you keep playing? And I'm like, I get paid
to play this game. Do you get paid to go
to gym? No? And I've been not paid for a
very long time. So to be actually able to earn,
(32:20):
albeit part time income from playing a sport is just ridiculous,
even if it is just to pay for the petrol
that you used to get there these stories of mothers
who were doubted, who were counted out, hung out to dry,
and who then set out to prove everyone wrong. There
(32:42):
as good a comeback stories you'll find. And to be clear,
it's not just Melissa Barbieri and Amy Rodriguez dotted all
across the soccer world, there are maverick moms charting new
ground in their countries. Like Melissa and Amy, they refused
to be done. People sometimes came to me and said, oh,
(33:05):
you're pregnant. That's crazy. Your life with football it's over.
I remember like my heart burning inside of me because
I was watching some girls play on TV and I
was not there. And then I was like, no, I
know that one day I will come back. That's Tamarras
she had a baby and fought her way to the
(33:26):
Brazilian national team. For the past nine years, she's been
the only mother. She's played over a hundred games for
her country. In Japan, as Usa Iwashimizu is the only
mother in the entire Japanese professional league, but she hopes
to be the first of many. I'm very aware that
(33:48):
I'm giving away for my younger players, and I think
that is one thing that is urging me to be
on the pitch. It's like a mission for me. So
it's okay to have a baby and be tired. That's okay,
But I just want to braden options for the Pewter players.
(34:09):
These women made their own roadmaps and showed us what
change looks like. They've fought for maternity policies in their
countries and finally, systematic change has started to happen. In
October twenty FIFA, the largest governing body in soccer globally,
implemented a new set of rules, including a mandatory maternity
(34:31):
leave of fourteen weeks, during which the player would receive
a minimum of two thirds of their contracted salary, and
to guarantee that no female player should suffer a disadvantage
as a result of becoming pregnant. FIFA says its aim
is to create new global minimum standards for women players
all over the world, no matter which league they're playing in.
(34:51):
With new maternity policies, nanny's along the sideline, and support
from your family, your team and your coach, motherhood and profession,
all sports no longer have to be in either or thing.
Last nws L season in one The Orlando Pride alone
had four mothers, Alex Morgan, Ali Krieger, Ashlyn Harris, and
(35:12):
Sydney LaRue, and in two Crystal Dunne, Juliet's, Casey Short
and Ali Long all announced pregnancies. It looks as though
we're in the midst of a bona fide baby boom
where the terms saka mom means something else entirely. Join
us for our next episode, Nadia Nadem and the Family
(35:33):
of Fighters. One Running for Bay Has a Rule is
a production of Waffle Iron Entertainment, Range Media Partners, Observatory Audio,
(35:56):
UP Media, and I Heart Radio, written and directed by
Metalin oxen Um, hosted by me Hannah wadingen and is
based on the book Under the Lights and in the
Dark written by Gwendolen Oxenham. The executive producers are Justin
Biskin from Waffle Iron Entertainment, Bob Alligan from Range Media Partners,
and Seawan Titan from I Heeart Radio. Co written by
(36:17):
Ruth Hilton, produced by Gwendolen oxen Um, Ruth Hilton and
Jordanic Click Franzheim. Co produced by Jimmy Jelinek and Jared Goodstat.
Edited by Carry Calfield Eric Sound design and mixing by
Jeremia's Immerman, music by Jeff Peters and Bill mart Theme
song performed by a one Laflair. You'll find more podcasts
from iHeart Radio on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
(36:39):
or wherever you get your podcasts. Good boy,
I'm Hannah Waddingham and this is Hustle Rule, an audio
docuseries featuring the untold stories of women's soccer players around
the world, based on the book Under the Lights and
in the Dark, written by Gwendolen Oxenham. When I first
started on Game of Thrones, my baby daughter was only
nine weeks old. I mean, I was so happy to
(00:24):
have landed this role and so confident to be back
on set. But the very first day of shooting, I
had this horrific postpartum reaction. I was literally sobbing on
the floor in the corridor of the hotel, thinking, I
don't think I can walk away from her and leave
her in the room with my friend. But I made
myself get up and do it. And on set, as
(00:46):
I pushed my beloved friend Lina Hedi down the stairs
to start Queen Circe's Walk of Atonement, I could hear
my baby crying behind a building. It was the first
time I'd been away from her, and my body just
like just reacted and I ached to be with her,
And yet I also had that wanting to step up
feeling to just be able to knock it out of
(01:08):
the park where you're like, I am going to be
as good as I was before, maybe even better, and
I'm going to show you so. When I heard the
stories in this episode, I just felt so much of
a connection. No matter what profession you're in, as a mother,
there's that twofold desire to move earth for your child
(01:28):
and to keep your dreams. It's the reason that when
I won my Emmi for ted Lasso, I put it
in my daughter's room because I wanted her to know
that when I leave her, I don't take it lightly
and I will only ever be away for a damn
good reason. In the world of women's soccer, the United States,
Joy Forcett and Carla Overbeck were two of the first
(01:51):
women to have babies and continue playing. They were part
of the United States World Cup winning team, and glossy
magazs san spreads feature them medals around their necks, kids
in their arms. It gave the impression that glowing motherhood
and soccer dominance went hand in hand, but that is
not the global norm. Take a look at the women's
(02:13):
game around the world, and mothers have been few and
far between. The majority of national teams had none. At
the professional level, women's leagues have been marked by low
salaries and instability. It's difficult to make it in the
league's in the first place. Throw in motherhood, and for
most the balance is tipped towards retirement. At a national
(02:36):
team level, countries have ever deepening talent pools. It's harder
and harder to hold onto your spot. If you get pregnant,
that means months on the sideline, all while a young,
hungry replacement is playing where you once were. The mothers
who do go for it often face a climate of doubt.
Coaches think it's too dicey to take a chance on
(02:58):
a player undergoing both a gigantic physical transformation and a
shift in priorities. But for most athletes, there's nothing more
motivating than proving someone wrong. This is the story of
two moms on opposite side of the world who were
cut or traded and then vowed to make a comeback.
(03:19):
I'm running one stuff for nobody. This episode is the
motherload his Gwin, who found this story when she was
(03:41):
taking care of her new baby. So I had a
book deadline. I wrote while my baby slept on my
chest and during crunch time. For two months, every day
I had to hand my newborn to a babysitter and
walk out that door as my three year old held
my leg and asked me not to go. As an athlete,
(04:03):
I learned how to give everything. But then when you're
a mom, you can't necessarily give everything to your work
while being the mom you want to be. But here
are the stories of two women who sure inspired me
to try. Named goalkeeper, Melissa Barbiary had been on the
(04:26):
Australian national team since she was twenty one years old.
She had played in three World Cups and two Olympic
Games she captained the team in. Then she got pregnant.
I wasn't shocked for a little while because we've only
just started trying, like literally first month, and I was
(04:49):
always told that I would have trouble getting pregnant because
of my indometriosis and things like that. So a few
different emotions hit the surface, and basically I was I
was on the way to telling my coach that I
was quite far along and I would have to cease
playing at least competitively immediately. The Australian national team coach
(05:10):
Tom Sermoney was supportive, but during her pregnancy some Money
left the national team and they hired a new coach.
It was a female coach, and I thought, oh, wow,
this is going to be great. We're just gonna go
on leaps and bounds and all the things that we've
been worrying about, and I've been worrying about returning to play.
Would just you know, go so smoothly, And it was
(05:34):
the complete opposite. It was it was harder. Maybe she
was like me where she didn't have any experience with
women having babies, but she just wrote us up completely,
and for whatever reason, I lost all my contracts. They
all just went out the window. But Melissa wasn't ready
(05:57):
to give up. She asked the new national team if
she had come to a camp just fourteen weeks after
giving birth, and usually after cesarean, you're not allowed to
do anything for the first six weeks, so basically I'd
only had maybe six weeks to get myself in any
sort of shape to try and show what progress I
(06:18):
had made post birth. And when I turned into the
training session, the first thing they asked me to do
when I arrived was do a medical screening, which is
fair enough, but one of the things was you had
to do a maximum calf repetition test, and anybody knows
who does calf races for that long. They go dead
and you pretty much maxed out your calf. And then
(06:40):
I went into a training session with one other goalkeeper
and had zero rest time. If I could equate it
to something, it would be like having a hit session,
a H double I T session where your thirty seconds
recovery you were made to jog the entire time, or
sprint and get balls and do all those things. And
(07:00):
at one point I ran to get a ball and
I sprinted up the hill and after doing that maxcalf test,
my my calf went. When I got back into the office,
the first thing the keeper coach said to me was, Oh,
you're actually way ahead than I thought you'd be. But
his look on his face was like, yeah, but I
(07:22):
told you so. I told you like you couldn't do
it because you couldn't even push out a whole session,
And you know, my heart sank, it was broken. They
started talking about coaching and you know, it was really
better if you just start coaching, and I'm like, well,
I don't want to coach yet, Okay, I'm not ready
for that. I cried all the way home, cried when
(07:45):
I got home, cried when I spoke to my husband
and my mom and all that, and you know, just devastated.
Really it was really really hard to fathom. Even so,
she decided to finish her coaching chorus she had started
before even getting pregnant. I got like m v P
of the coaching course, and you know, there were a
(08:06):
few women, but majority guys were just asking me great
questions about, you know, what I want to do and
how I want to progress and things, and I'm like,
I'm not finished playing yet, and a lot of them
saying oh really, and I'm like, yeah, I just I
just want to make the national team again. And sometimes
I cry, and and when I became fit and healthy
(08:28):
after the birth of my daughter, I said, I'm going
to go for a W League contract again, because you
need to play in the W League to be seen.
You can't just do it playing in your state. You
have to be in the national setup to actually be seen.
And so I contacted every single club. I said, do
you need a goalkeeper. Some of the emails were lovely.
(08:48):
They were like, oh no, I've already signed our keepers. Sorry,
but you know, good luck, good on you, and really helpful,
and then others were like, no, thanks too hard basket. Yeah,
we don't need a keeper. When you know that they
don't have a keeper, and I was like, what like
(09:09):
Like I was the captain, I was the number one
goalkeeper before going and having my baby. It was humbling, really,
you know. It was that moment where, well, you thought
you were good, didn't you, But you're not. You're not
that good, and nobody wants to She's not the only
(09:31):
mother to have felt unwanted. On the other side of
the Pacific, Amy Driguez, a US women's national team player
an Olympic gold medalist, faced a similar scenario despite being
one of the best strikers in women's professional soccer the WPS.
(10:00):
Oh goodness, okay, So I found out I was pregnant
back in two thousand and twelve. I had just come
off a great Olympic run. We had brought home the
gold medal. It was the off season. I was home
with my husband. We weren't necessarily trying to have a child,
(10:20):
so when we found out, we were a little bit surprised.
I can remember sitting down at my computer and writing
an email and probably redrafting it several times. I was
about to embark on a brand new season in a
brand new league with Seattle Rain. My heart sank a
little bit thinking I was going to have to have
(10:42):
that conversation with my coach at the time to let
them know that I would be likely out for the
full next year due to a pregnancy. You know, how
do I tell them this? It was so difficult to
turn on the TV and watch my teammates play without me.
In a weird way, pregnancy is kind of like an
injury where you wish you didn't have to sit out.
(11:05):
You wish you could be out on the field, um,
but you just can't. I just knew that I didn't
want to sit out anymore and I wanted to get
back out on the field and lace my boots up.
I had a sit down, breakfast meeting with the coach
of Seattle Rain, Laura Harvey. She actually handed me a
cute little baby onesie that had Seattle Rain on the front.
(11:26):
They were so welcoming to me. I had what I
felt like was faith in me from my current club
and my current club coach. Um. So, leaving that breakfast,
I was on cloud nine and ready to play again
and ready to get back out on the field. Then
about a month later, as we were ready to head
(11:47):
into season, I actually found out the news that I
had been traded, which was so surprising because just I said,
like a month earlier, you know, I was talking game plan,
I was talking, you know, how I was going to
reintegrate with the Seattle team, and I just was not
expecting a trade to come at the time that it did.
Of course, I internalized and I questioned myself, Um, and
(12:07):
you just fight all of those those bad, you know,
voices in your head. I've always been so loyal and
passionate about my teams. You never want to feel like
you weren't wanted by your club team. I felt like
Seattle didn't necessarily want to take the risk on me.
The Seattle team didn't have faith that I was going
to be able to bounce back from pregnancy. But in
(12:30):
spite of those perceptions, in women's athletics, there seems to
be an emerging phenomenon. Mothers who stay in the game
come back faster and stronger than they were pre pregnancy,
and the shift in mental landscape makes some mother a
better player, not worse. Here's what it looked like for Amy.
I gained about thirty five pounds, which the doctor said
(12:52):
I was perfectly fine and healthy, but me being a
professional athlete, and that was really hard to overcome. I
remember thinking, how am I going to run? You? Just
you feel so big and so tired, and everything hurts.
You're not getting any sleep, You're learning how to breastfeed,
so many changes are going on with your body, the
emotional rollercoaster of the hormones. I think I took the
(13:17):
voices that were in my head, you know, telling me
that I wasn't going to be able to bounce back
after pregnancy. I think I took those and almost used
it as fuel to say, well, I'm going to show
you that I shouldn't have been traded. I hit the
gym very hard. I hired personal trainers. A typical training
schedule for me would be anywhere between five and six
(13:39):
am workouts. I would have to try to work out
before my husband went to work because he was the
one staying at home taking care of the baby while
I was working out, and we just juggled it all.
Four months after getting back onto the field, Amy was
invited to the US national team training camp, which starts
with a set of physical fitness tests for the third
(14:00):
or so players invited. They have us to forty yards
sprint times, beat tests, agility tests, vertical jump like you
name it. There was a really aggressive part of me
that just wanted to get after it when we were
getting on the line. Like I would want to win
first place. I wanted to get to the ball first.
(14:20):
I wanted to score all the goals. I can remember
saying to myself, I have nothing to lose. Amy runs
her best times ever and in the forty yard dash
she registered the fastest time on the team. And to
show people that pregnancy wasn't going to change who I
was as a player. In fact, it actually helped me
as a player. I think really took people off guard,
(14:42):
and I felt a lot of support from my teammates.
Amy leaves National camp and then she moves across the
country to her new team in Kansas City, new baby
and toe, and no partner to help as she navigated
a whole new life as a mother and an athlete.
I had all these bad is my whole life packed
in suitcases. My husband's stayed in California working and living
(15:05):
in our full time home, and I was flying into
Kansas City, where I didn't know what apartment when I
was in I didn't have a car. I remember landing
in Kansas, arriving at the player housing and just like
breaking down crying because I was just so overwhelmed and scared.
Whatever shakiness she may have felt off the field, on
(15:28):
the field, it was a different story. In her first game.
She scores, and now the floodgates are open. Let's Kansas
City with the scoring. First score. Year. My first season
back after having Ryan was one of my greatest professional
(15:48):
seasons ever. So do I think that having children actually
helped me become a better goal scorer? I would say yes.
Amy becomes the second leading goal scorer in the league.
She takes Kansas City all the way to the league finals,
where they faced off against a familiar opponent. Ironically, we
(16:09):
actually played against Seattle in the championship that year, which
was the team that had just traded me. Which is
kind of a funny story how things always come full circle.
Jellalis US women's national team is in the stands watching
this today and this will be something she is delighted about.
I ended up scoring both of our goals against the
(16:30):
team that I was just previously traded from. It was
one of the biggest highs that I've had in my career.
What was even more special is that my family got
to come to the game, my little son Ryan in
his FC Kansas City shirt. I remember running out to
them after the game had ended and carrying my son
on the field, and was one of the first times
(16:51):
that the three of us as a little family got
to experience a championship. And it was because of the
hard work that I had put in that made it
all possible. So it was a really cool experience. The
national team coach at the time, Jill Ellis, I remember
her congratulating me. I think she was equally as surprised
at my comeback as a lot of my teammates and
(17:12):
fans and family were. And that actually led me into
the fifteen World Cup year where I was selected at
as one of the players on the roster. Meanwhile, for Melissa,
every single team in the Australian W League had passed
on her, but she kept training. Anyway. My heart is sinking,
(17:34):
it's broken. There's no way I can get a W
League contract because nobody wants me. And then I get
a call from one of the coaches that was on
the coaching course, Ross Aloisi, and Ross Aloisi says to me, look,
I just got asked to do the W League team
in Adelaide, and I remember how passionate you were about
(17:55):
making the national team, and I want you to come
and play for me in Adelaide. And I'm like, oh
my god, I can't believe that. And I said, oh God,
I better ask the husband, and more so my mom
because my mom handles Holly a lot more because my
husband's always out working. And I sat down with him
and I said, look, I want to continue playing. I
(18:17):
want to do this, but I have to move to Adelaide.
And my husband was just looked at me and he said,
if this is what makes you happy, then I'll do it.
We'll do it. We can do it, no problem. I
took Holly with me to Adelaide as soon as I could.
She was about seven or eight months at the time.
(18:39):
Your mom and then Holly. Yeah. Left my husband behind
in Melbourne because he had a job and raised enough
money by selling all my memorially, all my shots or
(19:00):
my gloves, everything I owned, so posters, photos, World Cup jerseys,
cup jerseys from my national team and asking a league
players or men's players and soccer roose for anything that
they could donate to me, And it was really really
lovely experienced how many people just sent me things like
(19:24):
shirts that they swapped with even more famous players than them,
Teams signing shirts, goalkeepers sending me the gloves, their boots,
brush a Dortmund kits. You know, it was endless. Imagine
that selling off your World Cup jerseys just so you
can keep playing. Between our own gear and the stuff
(19:46):
donated by other players, Melissa raised ten dollars, twice as
much money as she'd helped. She gave half of it
to her teammates, who are also struggling to make ends meet.
But that was just the beginning. Melissa's new team, Adelaide United,
wasn't just the bottom of the league. They had not
(20:07):
won a game in four years. They had gone thirty
four games without a win. It was the longest losing
streak in league history. When Melissa arrived, they won three games,
tied four and lost three. The previous season, they'd had
forty goals scored against them in two thousand and thirteen,
(20:27):
Melissa cut that down to fifteen. We didn't make fun
with or anything in terms of where the team had
been and where it was. It was absolutely fantastic, and
it's probably one of the best teams that I've been
involved with because we're all coming from such humble backgrounds
that it really just cemented for me what football was
about and how they all helped me rise Holly. I
(20:50):
remember one training session I had no one to look
after my daughter, and I thought, look, I'll just watch
on the sideline and I'll look after like it won't
be a problem. And then I turned up and friends
one of the girls, her parents are childcare owners. Like literally,
these two people just angels, swept in and I opened
(21:11):
my door and they were already at my door of
my car, and they said, oh, my daughter said that
you need somebody to help look after your daughter today,
and Holly does not go to anyone. I picked her
up out of the car and she flew to the
husband and she just stuck out her arms towards him,
and they were just like these angels that helped look
(21:32):
after Holly. Inside, they changed her nappy and just looked
after like she was one of their own, and was
the first day of my life really. At the end
of the season, she is named Keeper of the Year
for the w League the top division of professional club
level soccer in Australia. That was my second time winning it.
(21:54):
I was in disbelief really, but then I kind of
just thought thank you, and I was extremely grateful for
the opportunity to be playing in adelaide Um. And my
thought went to all the people that told me I couldn't.
It doesn't matter what people tell you. It matters what
you want to do and um, your strength and devotion
(22:17):
to what you want to achieve, UM, that all all
that really matters. It was a victory that got her
back into the mix competing for a spot on the
national team. She remembers a conversation with the goalkeeper coach
after she was awarded Goalkeeper of the Year where he said, congratulations,
but you know that's what happens when you're in a
(22:38):
terrible team. And I said, oh, thanks. I think it's
the real backhanded compliment and and I just thought, okay,
so he's not going to be one to just hand
me my opportunity. UM, so I knew I still had
a battle on my hands. But I got invited to
camps um whenever they had them in Australia. I didn't
(23:02):
make the the Asia Cup team, Um that had us
qualify for the World Cup in two thousand and fifteen. Um,
you know I was left at home for that, and
you know it was upsetting and and sad, but um,
you know it wasn't going to stop me from trying
(23:23):
to make the national team again. I turned up every
day in every session, even when they were telling me,
you know what, you're in this training squad as a number.
You're literally here as a number. We're looking to the
future now. And I'm like, no problem. I'll just turn
up every day, do my job, do it to the
best of my ability, and at the end of the day,
if you don't select me, I've done all I can
(23:45):
and I can hang my gloves up and say I've
done what I can and I'll have no regrets. But
if I don't try, if I don't do everything, if
I don't sacrifice everything, I'll never know and that will
hurt more. I think it's it's a matter of principle,
Like I kind of think, well, if you don't think
(24:06):
I can, then I have to. If you don't think
that I'm capable, then I must. But what I love
about the moments of all the times that they told
me that I couldn't was how humble I became, and
that chip on my shoulder, the ego, if I ever
had one, was completely gone, and I was just grateful
for every moment that I was given to play, to train.
(24:31):
Melissa made the team. Next she had to tell the
two people who had helped her get there the most. Really,
that's what my mom and husband said. Really, are you sure?
I said, yeah, do you have six weeks that you
can live in my house? It was Melissa's fourth World cap.
(24:54):
She is only the second Australian footballer to play in
that many. She go then thinking she'll be a sab
You don't say you're happy to be there because you're not.
You want to play. It's it's a falsehood. But if
you go there wanting to play and you're upset that
you're not playing, and then you you just you just
(25:16):
missed the point of the whole thing. So when I
turned up to that World Cup, I was grateful for
the opportunity. I just wanted to be the best teammate
I could be. I wanted to support the number one goalkeeper.
And then we turned up to the World Cup and
we played and behind closed doors game against Switzerland and
(25:37):
Matilda has suffered a setback in the lead up with
first choice goalkeeper Lydia Williams coming to a hamstring injury.
And so I'm selected to play in the first game
against the USA in my fourth World Cup after having
been told that I was just a number. And this
is one of the reasons why we picked Melissa. Baba
has just got so much experience, so much composure. Great decision.
(25:59):
May I say, you know, we've just gotten someone we
can rely on, meaning that after the isolation of being
a new mom, after the hours of training, after fighting
their way back onto their respective national team rosters, Melissa
Barbieri and Amy Rodriguez would be facing each other in
the two thousand and fifteen World Cup. I remember in
(26:22):
the warm up thinking I'm ready. I've done all the work,
I've worked through everything, and I didn't know if everyone
believed I should be there until in the warm up
when the goalkeeper coach that tried to break me. Um,
you know, when I had Holly came up to me
and said, you deserve to be here. You've I'm sorry
(26:44):
for what I put you through and all this other stuff.
And I made a say even the warm up and
he's life, yea, this is it. You're good. You're good
to go mate um, And I remember thinking, actually, I
think I cried in the warm up because I was like, yeah,
(27:05):
it's and I wasn't ecstatic. I wasn't I was grateful.
I really was grateful, and then I just wanted to
do the best I could and help my team win
the game. The moment I realized this felt good, I
let it out in the national anthem and there's literally
(27:33):
a photo of me belting out the national anthem with
Sammy Kerr. Actually Samy curs at the other end belting
it out with me. Lisa Divan is my captain at
the time. She was a little embarrassed and the kids
in front, their little ball kids in the mascots were
mortified at how loud I was yelling. But that's when
(27:53):
I let it out. That was the feeling of yeah,
all of it, for this, all of it, for this,
and I'll do it all over again for this. St
Australia lost to the US in that game, but both
teams went on to the Round of sixteen and in
the quarterfinals. Amy red Reguez got the start for the
(28:15):
U S in a one nothing victory over China, while
Australia lost to Japan and the US would go on
to win it all. The United States of America are
the two thousand and fifteen World Cup win US on
U five two thousand and fifteen. Like Fawcett over Beck
(28:37):
and the US mothers who came before her, Amy Red
Reguez stood in a shower of confetti, her son in
her arms, a World Cup champion, and we all ran
out onto the field. I can remember that was like
the ultimate highlight of my career. We were playing in
the largest, most important soccer tournament that you could ever
(28:59):
play in, and to know that I was a champion
with my family, with my son inte. I do think
there is a stigma or a thought that women cannot
be both moms and professional athletes. You need to either
choose your career or your family life. And I think
(29:21):
that that goes across so many areas in the workforce.
And I'm so grateful that I had the opportunity to
do both, because I think there are some moms out
there and some women out there that don't have that
choice and don't have that ability. But I love that
we are changing that narrative. Amy retired from pro soccer
(29:47):
this year. As for Melissa, she's still playing in Australia's
top division, which is now called the A League. She's
forty two now and looking back, here's what she thinks.
Going to the Olympics and going to World Cups and
becoming number one goalkeeper of your country is amazing. And
(30:09):
feeling all the highs and lows as an elite athlete
and getting eighty four caps for your country and becoming captain,
and then to have a baby and all that taken
away from you because you've had a baby, because you've
become a mother, is extremely, extremely soul destroying, because women
(30:31):
are so anonymous with having babies, their women, you know,
one of the miracles that we can do, we can
produce babies. And I had everything taken away from me.
I had my captaincy taken away from me, my number
one goalkeeper stripped um, my ability to earn income, everything
(30:52):
was taken away. The only thing I had left was
actually being a mother. And then just trying to piece
yourself back together, trying to understand what makes you tick.
And you're like, yeah, this is what makes me tick.
I love football. I'm a footballer. I'm a goalkeeper. Playing
for my national team is what I want to do,
and playing and mental health for me a sonymous. I
(31:15):
will always play this game. I will always play this game.
Wasn't it going to crowd? What was it going to cry?
I will always play this game because it's so hard.
It's so hard, and you do it and then you
(31:37):
do something amazing and then you're like, wow, I didn't
know I could do that. And even if I'm walking,
and you know, you play that walking soccer with the
bell in the ball just in case you can't hear it,
and thinks you just want to play because I'm not
going to go to the gym. Why do you go
to the gym unless it's to get strong and fast
(31:57):
forward this? You know, I can't do zomba. Zomba is
just not me. And my my husband's like, why why
do you keep playing? And I'm like, I get paid
to play this game. Do you get paid to go
to gym? No? And I've been not paid for a
very long time. So to be actually able to earn,
(32:20):
albeit part time income from playing a sport is just ridiculous,
even if it is just to pay for the petrol
that you used to get there these stories of mothers
who were doubted, who were counted out, hung out to dry,
and who then set out to prove everyone wrong. There
(32:42):
as good a comeback stories you'll find. And to be clear,
it's not just Melissa Barbieri and Amy Rodriguez dotted all
across the soccer world, there are maverick moms charting new
ground in their countries. Like Melissa and Amy, they refused
to be done. People sometimes came to me and said, oh,
(33:05):
you're pregnant. That's crazy. Your life with football it's over.
I remember like my heart burning inside of me because
I was watching some girls play on TV and I
was not there. And then I was like, no, I
know that one day I will come back. That's Tamarras
she had a baby and fought her way to the
(33:26):
Brazilian national team. For the past nine years, she's been
the only mother. She's played over a hundred games for
her country. In Japan, as Usa Iwashimizu is the only
mother in the entire Japanese professional league, but she hopes
to be the first of many. I'm very aware that
(33:48):
I'm giving away for my younger players, and I think
that is one thing that is urging me to be
on the pitch. It's like a mission for me. So
it's okay to have a baby and be tired. That's okay,
But I just want to braden options for the Pewter players.
(34:09):
These women made their own roadmaps and showed us what
change looks like. They've fought for maternity policies in their
countries and finally, systematic change has started to happen. In
October twenty FIFA, the largest governing body in soccer globally,
implemented a new set of rules, including a mandatory maternity
(34:31):
leave of fourteen weeks, during which the player would receive
a minimum of two thirds of their contracted salary, and
to guarantee that no female player should suffer a disadvantage
as a result of becoming pregnant. FIFA says its aim
is to create new global minimum standards for women players
all over the world, no matter which league they're playing in.
(34:51):
With new maternity policies, nanny's along the sideline, and support
from your family, your team and your coach, motherhood and profession,
all sports no longer have to be in either or thing.
Last nws L season in one The Orlando Pride alone
had four mothers, Alex Morgan, Ali Krieger, Ashlyn Harris, and
(35:12):
Sydney LaRue, and in two Crystal Dunne, Juliet's, Casey Short
and Ali Long all announced pregnancies. It looks as though
we're in the midst of a bona fide baby boom
where the terms saka mom means something else entirely. Join
us for our next episode, Nadia Nadem and the Family
(35:33):
of Fighters. One Running for Bay Has a Rule is
a production of Waffle Iron Entertainment, Range Media Partners, Observatory Audio,
(35:56):
UP Media, and I Heart Radio, written and directed by
Metalin oxen Um, hosted by me Hannah wadingen and is
based on the book Under the Lights and in the
Dark written by Gwendolen Oxenham. The executive producers are Justin
Biskin from Waffle Iron Entertainment, Bob Alligan from Range Media Partners,
and Seawan Titan from I Heeart Radio. Co written by
(36:17):
Ruth Hilton, produced by Gwendolen oxen Um, Ruth Hilton and
Jordanic Click Franzheim. Co produced by Jimmy Jelinek and Jared Goodstat.
Edited by Carry Calfield Eric Sound design and mixing by
Jeremia's Immerman, music by Jeff Peters and Bill mart Theme
song performed by a one Laflair. You'll find more podcasts
from iHeart Radio on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
(36:39):
or wherever you get your podcasts. Good boy,
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