It already has 1.5 million views. Alex Morgan twists away from her marker and lets rip at goal – again, and again, and again. It is not a particularly unusual sight; Morgan scored 23 goals for club and country in 2018 and nine goals in the 22 games in which she featured last year. But this is different. The marker is static, the training drill simple but, under a “USA LFG” hoodie, Morgan’s seven-month‑pregnant belly juts out proudly.
A day later, in full USWNT training gear, the 2019 World Cup Silver Boot-winner was stepping off the national team coach having joined her teammates for training before their Concacaf Olympic qualifier against Mexico in California. Again, the world retweeted.
Morgan is far from the first footballer, let alone elite athlete, to continue training long into their pregnancy. The Norwegian runner Ingrid Kristiansen famously won the Houston marathon while almost five months pregnant (though without knowing it). Paula Radcliffe took part in a 10km charity run while seven months pregnant in 2010 and, nine months after giving birth, won the New York marathon. Meanwhile in 1994, the US player Joy Fawcett became the first woman on the team to get pregnant mid-career. Later, following her third child, she returned to action after six weeks.
NHS guidelines now encourage pregnant women to “keep up your normal daily physical activity or exercise for as long as you feel comfortable” and explicitly state that “exercise is not dangerous for your baby”, going on to state: “There is some evidence that active women are less likely to experience problems in later pregnancy and labour.” Yet it has taken time for the limited research available to pierce widely held views and to sink into public consciousness.
The Morgan phenomenon – the celebrating of the pregnant athlete, is a new thing. And it has taken global poster-women such as Morgan, an eight-weeks pregnant Serena Williams revealing her pregnancy after winning the 2017 Australian Open and images of a five-and-a-half-month pregnant Orlando Pride forward Sydney Leroux training, coupled with a much greater awareness of the benefits of exercise during pregnancy in society generally, to break the stigma. As someone who fainted on the London Underground twice while three months pregnant, the efforts of the likes of Morgan, Williams and Leroux look almost superhuman.
For too long having children has been pushed back by players until retirement, for a number of reasons. Players such as the former US players Mia Hamm and Julie Foudy and the England duo Kelly Smith and Rachel Yankey all waited until their playing careers were over before starting a family.
Yes, some have undoubtedly chosen to wait until their careers had drawn to a close, mindful of just how short a playing career can be, but equally impactful on decision-making has been the lack of maternity rights, financial worries and a fear of being sidelined or replaced.
Morgan announced her pregnancy alongside her husband and LA Galaxy player Servando Carrasco in October and, naturally, her return to action was not the focus. However, her new international manager Vlatko Andonovski hinted at the striker’s intention in his first press conference following the departure of the two-time World Cup‑winning coach Jill Ellis. “The most important thing is to have a healthy pregnancy and deliver a healthy baby,” he said. “When she does that, we’re going to do everything in our power, use the resources that the federation is providing, whether it’s high-performance director, staff, anything that we can do on our side to help her get back for the Olympics.”
Making the slimmed-down USWNT squad for Tokyo 2020 three months after giving birth would be hugely impressive. But should she not make the squad her attempt to stay ready to play while her body is going through the most monumental of changes should be applauded regardless.
Ultimately there is no reason Morgan cannot return, whenever that may be, as strong, if not stronger. Indeed the Chelsea manager, Emma Hayes, and the England international Katie Chapman put the longevity of the latter’s career down to her having had children. “Everybody who’s become a mother tells me that it increases your red blood cells so you can run longer,” said the then-pregnant Hayes following Chelsea’s 2018 FA Cup win. “You become better endurance runners, and Katie is insistent that because of the birth of her three children she runs more and more. She’s in impeccable shape – physically, she’s probably our most dominant athlete.”
In 1894 Blanche Hillyard became the first mother to win Wimbledon. At the 1948 London Olympics the Dutch sprinter and mother of two, Fanny Blankers-Koen, won four gold medals. In 2010 there were five mothers in the Los Angeles Sparks basketball team. Jessica McDonald found herself injured and pregnant in 2010 but came back to earn her first senior call-up to the USWNT six years later and then, aged 30, made the squad for the 2019 World Cup.
Last year Jasmin Paris, then 35, became the first woman to win the gruelling Montane Spine Race along the Pennine Way, setting a race record while expressing breast milk at aid stations along the route. All of which proves pregnancy no longer means your title switches from athlete to mother. That a player of Morgan’s profile is highlighting that will do no end of good.
