Nekoda Smythe-Davis gets honest about periods as she prepares to make Olympic return at Paris 2024 after pregnancy

In between bouts last November, judoka Nekoda Smythe-Davis found herself washing her kit in the toilets.

She was not washing out stains from a cut in combat but blood with the 30-year-old starting her period while waiting in the tunnel to go out to compete.

The experience sparked a thought in the Olympian’s mind about how to best address periods in judo.

“I now know the power of a female body, I’ve been through pregnancy, we are so different to men on so many levels,” Smythe-Davis said. “I think to treat us like men when it comes to sport and elite athletes, it’s wrong. We aren’t the same, we don’t train the same, and we have so many different requirements.

“And I think for me, how periods affect performance and how periods affect training is so important and that needs to almost be an extra column when it comes to dealing with an elite female athlete rather than men and women having exactly the same categories.

“So then we as women can just compete better, train better and understand our bodies more.

“With judo, it’s a lot about tradition, I think the white judogi goes back as far as judo first originated so I don’t know in terms of tradition whether it could be challenged enough to change it.

“But maybe there could be some invention of underwear or shorts that women in judo could wear while competing.”

Over the past four years, Smythe-Davis has become more in tune with her body than ever before as she battled long post-concussion syndrome after taking what she describes as a “bad knock” at training in late 2019.

The Covid pandemic slowed down her recovery and even after the Tokyo Olympics were postponed to 2021, the two-time world silver medallist knew she would not make a second appearance at the Games.

By the time Tokyo 2020 eventually came around, Smythe-Davis was 36 weeks pregnant and soon gave birth to a daughter, Ryia.

Then came the return to training, which saw Smythe-Davis having to re-learn much of what had become second nature to her previously.

Her slow and steady return was rewarded with victory at the Riccione European Open in 2022, while Smythe-Davis won her first Grand Prix medal since giving birth with bronze in Portugal earlier this year.

She added: “It’s been a journey, and it’s scary, I genuinely didn’t think it was going to happen.

“The first time I went back to competition I fought up a weight category to take the pressure off for the first one and I just really enjoyed it.

“The biggest lesson to me in that situation was that I lost for bronze and I remember coming off and knowing mentally that I should hold back the tears because it didn’t matter, it was just a huge achievement that I was there in the first place.

“But also, the competitive side of me massively came back that I was really upset that I’d lost and that for me solidified ‘Ok, this is definitely what I want to do’.

“The following weekend, I fought at my normal weight category and I won gold. And that was an ‘Ok. she’s back’ moment.”

With the Paris 2024 Olympics only one year away, the Games are set to inspire people and communities all across the country. Smythe-Davis hopes that by sharing her story it will give others motivation to get involved into sport.

Smythe-Davis was a medal favourite as the Tokyo Olympic cycle kicked off and even though much has changed since she last stood on the World Championships podium in 2018, she knows people will expect her to medal.

That is no different from what she expects from herself.

“I want to be on the podium, I want to be at the top of the podium in Paris, I feel I’m capable of doing it,” she explained.

“Or at least I was capable of doing it, so I feel like I owe it to myself to give it a shot and to try and get better and qualify and get on top of the podium.

“That is my ultimate goal. I’m not going to beat around the bush and say anything else.

“I still feel that there’s pressure there, but every time I feel like the pressure is getting to me, I just remind myself of my perspective and actually what it means to me and how important other things still are in my life, my family, my child.

“I think I’ll be able to deal with the pressure a lot more healthily than I probably did in the past. I think the pressure will be the same but how I’m going to deal with it will be different.”

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