That whole baby/climbing thing again
Posted: Thu May 19, 2022 10:14 am
‘I’m a pregnant woman making choices’: Shauna Coxsey on climbing – and the ‘bullies’ who want her to stop
‘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”.
