Olympic Athlete Was Being Forced To Choose Between Breastfeeding Or Gold Medal Dreams

It's hard to believe that in 2021, a woman would still have to be deciding between being a mother and being a professional. Sadly, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadian athlete Kimberley Gaucher was being forced to decide between breastfeeding her baby or competing for a gold medal with her Olympic women's basketball team.

Thankfully, the decision has been amended since the time of Kimberley's post.

A mother from British Columbia Canada was facing an extremely difficult dilemma last month.

As a member of the Canadian women’s basketball team, who is headed to the Olympics in Tokyo next month, mom Kimberly Gaucher is being forced to decide between two dreams — breastfeeding her daughter, or competing for gold.

In a series of emotional Instagram videos, the professional athlete explained her predicament.

"All I’ve ever wanted out of my basketball career is to rep Canada at the Olympics," Kimberly said.

"Last year my team qualified for Tokyo but right now I’m being forced to decide between being a breastfeeding mom and an Olympic athlete."

"I can’t have them both," she explained.

"Tokyo has said no friends, no family, no exceptions.”

Kimberly pointed out that athletes will be flying from around the world, and that the stadiums are set to be a 50% capacity.

“But I’m not going to have access to my daughter?” she pointed out.

Kimberly's daughter, three-month-old Sophie, is still breastfeeding multiple times a day.

"People have told me to pump like mad. I don’t have enough milk in me to train as a high-level athlete, get my butt back in shape, and feed her currently, all while stocking a 28-day supply,” she explained.

She even went so far into looking into shipping her milk, but there are too many complications.

'I need the help of the internet," she pleaded. "If anyone knows anybody, anything, let’s see if we can make a difference. It’s 2021, let’s see if we can make working moms normal."

Thankfully, this issue has since been resolved since the original publication of this article.

Olympic organizers announced last week that they will allow the babies of breastfeeding mothers to attend the Summer Games in Tokyo in July.

What an amazing victory!