That whole baby/climbing thing again

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Gob
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That whole baby/climbing thing again

Post by Gob »


‘I’m a pregnant woman making choices’: Shauna Coxsey on climbing – and the ‘bullies’ who want her to stop

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‘I wouldn’t say I was the bravest climber. I think it’s more the ability to assess risk’ … Shauna Coxsey. Photograph: Band of Birds
With a baby due in just days, the Olympian is still reaching for the heights. She talks about the sport she loves, the criticisms she ignores, and the example she hopes to set

The week her baby is due, Shauna Coxsey is, as usual, at her local climbing centre in Sheffield. The British Olympic climber has scaled climbing walls and rocks throughout her pregnancy, and videos shared on her Instagram account show her making her way gracefully and powerfully upwards, in control of her body, as she switches holds to accommodate her growing bump.

Her decision drew criticism – as she knew it would – and she was forced to hit back at the online “bullying”. For a start, she says, with nearly 450,000 Instagram followers, she knows social media “is a place where you’re going to get criticised, regardless of what you say”. But she had also seen the reaction other women have faced. “One of my good friends, who is incredibly strong and confident, stopped climbing because she couldn’t be bothered with the judgment and the funny looks she got in her late pregnancy,” says Coxsey. “The idea that someone would stop doing something they absolutely love because of the judgment; it’s so sad we’re in a position where that happens still.”

She knows not every climber can keep climbing through pregnancy, but wants people to know that for others, “it is possible. I think it’s important we share those positive stories, and we know that there is a choice. It’s not the case that we all have to go and sit on the sofa for nine months.”

Coxsey is, of course, not the first woman to climb while pregnant. The British climber Alison Hargreaves scaled the north face of the Eiger while nearly six months pregnant in 1988, and other athletes, such as the French rock climber Caroline Ciavaldini, have continued with the sport throughout pregnancy. “I have friends who are pregnant that are still climbing,” Coxsey says. “They’re climbing within their comfort zone, and mitigating these risks, and choosing to do something that keeps them fit, active, healthy and happy.”

She has been able to brush off most of the negative comments, she says, but it is “knowing that other women face judgment which is hard. I hope that sharing it empowers women to make their own choices, and a small part of me hopes maybe some of the people who are judging might think twice about it next time.” She smiles. “Maybe that’s naive.”

Coxsey is grateful when other people point out she is an Olympic climber and knows how to climb safely, but she also thinks that is not quite the right message. “I’m a pregnant woman making choices,” she says, simply, when we speak over Zoom. When we’re done, she and her husband are going to take to the climbing wall. Today, she says with a laugh, they are going to strap a watermelon to his stomach so he can see what she has been dealing with.

She did not necessarily plan to be climbing at this stage, “because a lot of my previous success and satisfaction has come from pushing it to the limit and trying to be the best that I could be. So I was fascinated to know whether I would still find climbing as fun.” In fact, she has regained her love of the sport.

“There is so much more freedom and enjoyment in a very different way. When you make your passion your job, it’s difficult to stay in love with that.” This stage, she says, “has brought it all back, fulfilled me again”.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

ex-khobar Andy
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Re: That whole baby/climbing thing again

Post by ex-khobar Andy »

It's not the climbing that's the problem, it's the falling. With these competition walls, they are roped on in a harness so that if they do fall, they don't kill themselves. She is not wearing one in the pic because she is only 2 feet off the ground. But I'd like to see the harness and how it takes her pregnancy into account.

Big RR
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Joined: Thu Apr 15, 2010 9:47 pm

Re: That whole baby/climbing thing again

Post by Big RR »

I imagine there are many things, driving among them, that could be deleterious or even fatal to the developing fetus; I just don't see a problem with the climbing, especially as done by an expert. But people have to bitch.... after all, they know soooo much about climbing and its dangers.

I also found this interesting;
When you make your passion your job, it’s difficult to stay in love with that
; I can relate to that. For a good number of years I have been singing with a number or amateur (I guess, more appropriately, avocational) choral groups, but over the past few years have taken a paid gig as a section leader at a cathedral choir. I wouldn't have guessed it, but there is a big difference; as an amateur you can always decline to sing something you don't care for (and even miss rehearsals or performances, at times), but as a paid profession, you generally cannot. While i am not relying on the pay for my support, there is still a difference and my relationship to singing/music has changed somewhat--I imagine it would be even bigger if that were my sole means of support (I have a friend who sings on Broadway, and he talks of the grin of 8 shows a week)--it becomes more of a job and less of a passion (probably less so for me because I can always up and leave). I'm gad she has rediscovered the passion.

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