Why Lizzie Deignan’s Pregnancy Matters More Than You’d Think

Mar 16
cyclical

When Boels-Dolmans tweeted that Lizzie Deignan had some exciting news to share, most people would have assumed, reasonably enough, that it would refer to a return to racing at Trofeo Alfredo Binda.

The 2015 world champion had been absent from the season openers at Het Nieuwsblad and Strade Bianche, after all, and had already confirmed she’d miss the Commonwealth Games in Australia in April.

Announcing her pregnancy seemed to catch everyone on the hop, not least her team, Boels-Dolmans, who were ‘happily surprised to learn the news’. At the team launch in January, Deignan had announced her intention to focus on this year’s World Championships in Austria. Now, Team GB need a rethink about how they approach that goal, while Boels-Dolmans face a reappraisal of the resources they’ll direct at a full season’s campaign.

It’s not a surprise that a young, newly-married couple like Deignan and her pro-rider husband Phillip should choose to start a family, but the sporting environment high-performance athletes move in leads us to believe it’s an unusual, even reckless, decision. That’s not even considering the choice environment facing women in less high-profile scenarios.

Deignan’s recent comments on prizemoney parity and the gender gap in cycling illustrate a woman fully in charge of her destiny. Taking a temporary step away from top-flight competition to have a baby should be celebrated, for Deignan and her husband first of all, but also for the example it sets to others, female and male alike. Remaining locked into a system that doesn’t respect one’s choices is unhealthy.

Lizzie Deignan, Women’s Tour press conference, June 2017.

Times have to change; being made to feel that you need to wait until some externally validated ‘right time’ as dictated by the norms of your industry to alter your path is an attitude we all need to shake off. Among other things, gender parity must mean that choosing when to have a baby, whether one is a professional athlete or not, should not be a decision mediated through ‘traditional’ filters.

Enough cyclists have returned to racing in motherhood to suggest that Deignan can realistically challenge for the world championships in 18 months’ time.

Her fellow Team GB star Laura Kenny took a track world silver earlier this month, just six months after having her first child. Kristin Armstrong took three consecutive Olympic TT golds, giving birth to a son between wins one and two. On the road, Olga Zabelinskaya won Olympic medals (road, behind Deignan in 2012, and in the TT in 2012 and 2016) after starting a family, and Marta Bastianelli is still a consistent winner with a young family at home.

Boels-Dolmans are one of cycling’s most stable sponsors, confirming their support for the team through to the end of 2020. Deignan has said she wants to continue racing until the Tokyo Olympics before closing her career. A stable team environment, and relationships built over five years, will give Deignan the feeling that she can slip back into familiar routines in time for the 2019 World Championships.

Whether she wins or loses, it’s the example and the journey that matter, as much as the results on the road.