The great challenge of being a mother and an Olympic champion at the same time

SabadellLittle Clara has already grown accustomed to the noise and the colors of the pool. She opened her eyes as everyone congratulated her mother. Fifteen months after her last match, Judith Forca (Sabadell, 1996) returned to water polo, playing in her team CN Sabadell's victory over CN Mataró in a penalty shootout (14-12) last Wednesday. Forca, 29, provided two assists in her first match since the Olympic final in Paris, where she realized one of her dreams: winning Olympic gold. Then came an even more beautiful dream: Clara. "I wasn't nervous, but I was really looking forward to it. I've been training for months and I missed it, being able to play, the contact with another team, putting on my water polo swimsuit, my cap... I'm very happy," she explained to Ràdio Sabadell.

Forca returns to competition surrounded by her people. She plays at home, and this Saturday she jumped back into the pool for a Champions League match, the derby against Terrassa, which the home team won 13-9. Forca studied at Escola Santa Clara, a unique private school in Catalonia where the most promising athletes of CN Sabadell study. She's spent her entire life at a club with which she's won league titles and Champions Leagues. And she's also won a battle, because the club's management supported her, assuring her that she could become a mother without worrying about the future of her career. "Having a salary at the club has allowed me to take this step. I've heard that there are athletes' contracts that specify they can't get pregnant. It's shameful; it's a right of every woman, and she should be able to exercise it whenever she wants." He explained to the ARA a few months ago

In fact, CN Sabadell has managed to change the League's rules thanks to the example of Forca and Maica García, who also became a mother a few weeks ago with the birth of Olivia. In her case, she will return to the pool after Christmas. Maica didn't want to miss Forca's return, of course.

The pregnancies of two such prominent players led Sabadell to request changes to the League rules from the Spanish Federation, which had no provision for how to handle situations where a player decides to become a mother. Thus, starting this season, clubs will be able to sign players outside of transfer windows when a player is unavailable due to pregnancy, thanks to negotiations with CN Sabadell. Sabadell also secured permission to field all five of its foreign players, as an exception is made if a foreign player fills in for a pregnant local player, and she does not count as a foreign player slot. Sabadell has five foreign players this year: Hungarian Natasa Rybanska, Americans Tara Prentice and Isabel Williams, Dutch player Van de Kraats, and Greek player Athina Giannopoulou. Williams, with her stoppages, was key to the victory against a superb Mataró team that has significantly strengthened its roster this year.

"We are very pleased with this resolution, which recognizes a situation as natural as pregnancy and allows clubs to continue competing on equal terms. However, we believe this solution should not be a one-off, and we must continue working to resolve the underlying issue, which is the treatment of EU athletes within the current regulations," said the president of the organization, Claudi Martí, a few weeks ago.

"I was really looking forward to coming back; it's been about fifteen months without playing. I contribute what I can to the team, but I'm eager to keep working, and I hope that little by little I can contribute more," said Forca, who was advised during her pregnancy by former artistic swimmer Ona Carbonell, a pioneering figure in the sport. Forca worked out in the gym for much of her pregnancy and returned to training as soon as possible, with the support of her partner and the club, to find a balance between being with Clara and doing her job. "The most important thing is physical fitness. I'm working hard, and my teammates are helping me, but people think it's much harder than it really is. Mentally, I'm very competitive, and I wanted to play again," she said. Fifteen months after that final in Paris, which she played with a fractured vertebra and in great pain, Judith Forca returned to the pool after becoming the first water polo player to successfully combine top-level sport and motherhood. She won't be the last.