“In a modern society, supporting pregnancy should never be a question,” said Edina Fata, managing director of Győri Audi ETO KC, a club competing under the umbrella of the International Handball Federation -IHF-. “A good workplace does this, and the best handball club cannot be any different.” Ensuring that motherhood does not translate into job insecurity, loss of income or an irreversible brake on a sporting career has become a structural debate in women’s sport. Far from being an isolated case, this reflection connects with shared experiences across different disciplines and competitive levels.
As more women extend their professional careers and choose to start a family while still competing, sport faces the challenge of adapting its labour and competitive frameworks. While parental leave policies have progressed in other sectors, their application in high-performance sport remains uneven and, in many cases, dependent on internal decisions by clubs and federations.
From individual experience to an institutional challenge
In disciplines with consolidated contractual structures, some international bodies have begun to establish minimum standards around maternity. FIFA incorporated into its regulations the obligation to grant paid maternity leave and guarantees of reintegration, while the WNBA introduced full salary during maternity leave, alongside childcare and work-life balance support measures.
In sports with more fragmented labour models, such as tennis, progress has come more recently and largely as a result of pressure from the athletes themselves. The WTA launched a paid maternity programme and ranking protection after years of internal debate. “For a long time, having a child meant starting from zero,” explained Victoria Azarenka, a representative on the players’ council. “It wasn’t only about the money, but about knowing whether you would really have a chance to compete again.”
In handball, the absence of a specific international regulation has shifted responsibility to clubs and leagues. The International Handball Federation does not currently provide a mandatory framework on maternity leave, leading to uneven responses depending on economic and cultural context. European directives on pregnancy and work-life balance establish a legal baseline, but they do not address the specific demands of elite sport. In this regulatory gap, some clubs have chosen to develop their own policies. Both Győri Audi ETO KC and Metz Handball have treated pregnancy as another phase of a player’s career rather than an interruption.
Concrete measures and absorbing the costs
Effective support involves decisions with both financial and sporting implications. Maintaining full salary, housing, car and other benefits, while simultaneously reinforcing the squad with temporary replacements, represents a real budgetary effort. At Metz Handball, club president Thierry Weizman explained that the organisation assumes full administrative responsibility: “The player knows that after pregnancy she still has a job at the same club. We pay everything as before and then handle the insurance reimbursement ourselves. For the player, nothing changes.”
Weizman stressed that this approach generates an intangible but decisive return: “When a player sees what the club has done for her, she wants to fight for the club when she comes back.” At Győr, Edina Fata acknowledged that season planning becomes more complex when several players are pregnant at the same time, but insisted that “the long-term value of this support far outweighs the short-term challenges.”
Athletes and the gap between regulation and reality
Despite regulatory progress, many athletes have pointed out that existing measures do not always reflect the real experience of pregnancy and returning to competition. In tennis, Naomi Osaka spoke after her return to the tour about the additional pressure many mothers face. “Coming back after having a child is not just a physical issue,” she said. “Mentally, it’s a very demanding process, and often there is an expectation that you return at the same level immediately.”
In athletics, several athletes have publicly denounced the loss of sponsorship contracts during maternity, prompting national federations to reassess their support policies. The complaints are consistent across sports: contractual uncertainty, interrupted income and a lack of clear protocols. Even where regulations exist, the absence of transparent communication in advance remains one of the main sources of stress.
The models that function best share common features regardless of the sport. Explicit guarantees of return, minimum financial protection, individualised medical coordination and transparent communication emerge as key elements. “It’s not always a question of budget,” noted Fata. “Very often, the most important thing is that the player clearly knows what is going to happen.”
