Melat Kejeta is the only mother in the German team at the World Championships in Athletics. 15 months after the birth of her daughter, she started in the marathon in Budapest and came in a strong eleventh – despite the demanding balancing act between competitive sport and child. Many athletes encourage women that pregnancy does not have to mean the end of their career.
Melat Kejeta loves to run. “I can’t live without running,” she once said. And she loves being a mother. Daughter Hermona is always there. Also in Budapest. “She is my happiness,” she says.
When the athlete from the Kassel running team sensationally finished sixth in the Olympic marathon in Sapporo two years ago, she had no idea that she was pregnant at the time. When she found out, it was “a shock”. “But then I thought it was a gift from God,” said the German marathon runner, who comes from Ethiopia, of the sports show. And so she called her daughter Hermona – it means “gift of God”.
A year after birth in Ottawa at the start
Of course, the almost two-year baby break threw her back in her sport. The return to the old level of performance is difficult, and the fact that the runner-up world champion in the 2020 half marathon was able to qualify for Budapest at all is a success in itself. A year after she was born, she was back on the starting line of a marathon for the first time. In Ottawa in May she finished in 2:27:50 hours and stayed ten seconds under the World Championship norm.
The challenges are immense
The 30-year-old completed a training workload of 160 kilometers per week in the run-up to the World Cup in eight weeks of altitude training in Iten, Kenya. There she supported a nanny, in Hungary the boyfriend and father of the child is with them, at home in Ahnatal Brigitte Aufenanger, the wife of her coach Winfried Aufenanger, who died in October 2021, helps.
Nevertheless, the challenges are immense. Training and travelling, spending hours with the child on your lap. It’s especially difficult at night, Kejeta said, because there’s a lack of sleep: “She wakes up three to four times and I have to go to training at 6 a.m. again.”
However, she is only too happy to accept the double burden. “I have always loved children. Now I want to work even harder for them and my family.” Her daughter has become the center of her life, her sporting ambition has remained and athletics has also become her profession.
Fraser-Pryce: First wept, then history was made
A number of athletes have impressively demonstrated that pregnancy does not have to mean the end of a career. Jamaican sprint legend Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce reported that she was sitting on the bed crying when she found out she was pregnant, after all she was in the middle of preparing for the World Championships in London, where she won her 100m title wanted to defend successfully.
Nothing came of it. In 2017, one day after the World Cup final, son Zyon was born – and “Pocket Rocket” returned successfully. Two years later, the then 32-year-old made history in Doha when she became the first mother and oldest athlete ever to sprint to World Championship gold, also triumphing in Eugene last year.
“A victory for motherhood,” she wrote on Facebook in 2019, her son was a motivation. “Being a mother doesn’t deprive you of your abilities or limit them. We women can achieve what we set out to do.” In Budapest, the three-time Olympic champion and ten-time world champion won bronze in the 100 m at the age of 36 and silver in the relay.
Miller-Uibo’s World Cup start four months after birth
Defending champion Shaune Miller-Uibo from the Bahamas started at the World Championships in Budapest just four months after the birth of her son Maicel over 400 m – and cheered after her preliminary run: “It’s so much fun, back on the track to be. It was exciting and I enjoyed it. I missed it so much.”
Next year, the Olympic champion from Tokyo, who still wants to breastfeed according to current plans, wants to win gold again in Paris: “My body has changed a bit, but I also feel stronger. It takes time, but the most important message is: ‘ We come back!'”
Kejeta: “She gives me strength”
Kejeta calculates that it will take her a year and a half to get back to her top level. In Budapest, she finished eleventh in only the fourth marathon of her career, despite the unloved heat, after a very good race in 2:29:04 hours. The big goal is the Olympic qualification for Paris 2024, not an easy task considering the strong national competition. Daughter Hermosa should also help, “she gives me strength”.
Königstein: “I wish I had a contact person”
Fabienne Königstein already mastered the norm of 2:26:50 hours. Just nine months after the birth of her daughter Skadi, the 30-year-old increased her personal best by almost seven minutes to 2:25:48 hours in Hamburg in May – sixth place in the all-time German best list.
The Mannheim native is a strong team with her husband Karsten Königstein, but the compatibility of sport and family is her big issue. “I would like a contact person for pregnant women and also for athletes who want to find their way back into sport afterwards. Someone who can competently accompany the training if there are any questions. The athletes are currently on their own.” , she complained on SWR.
Kejeta just trained straight away
Melat Kejeta – especially without a trainer – was disoriented and started running again immediately after the birth. Probably a little too early and too intense, the body had changed and she was struggling with hip and pelvic problems.
“I didn’t know any better. It would certainly have been better to start slowly with gym and fitness,” she knows today. With the help of physiotherapy and rehabilitation training, the situation has improved, but the pain is still there. Her best time since her marathon debut in Berlin in 2019 is 2:23:57 hours.
National coach Kohls trusts her to set the German record
The World Cup in Budapest 15 months after the birth was another step on her ambitious path, national marathon coach Matthias Kohls even believes she is capable of the German record (2:19:19, Irina Mikitenko 2008): “She can do it. It There are many athletes who were able to improve their performance after pregnancy.”
The associations are also required
Should the leap to Paris succeed, Kejeta, who is staying in an apartment in Budapest not far from the team hotel, will probably not be the only German athlete with a child there. Königstein and the two-time European obstacle course champion Gesa Krause, who gave birth to her daughter Lola Emilia at the end of April, are also already thinking about how they can reconcile everything.
And the German Athletics Association and the world association will also have to deal with the topic more intensively. “That has an impact on the organization. Accommodation, travel – our team will have to come up with something,” says Kohls.