Enlarge image
Anna Ruprecht
Photo: BORUT ZIVULOVIC / REUTERS
After winning the World Cup gold medal in the team competition, ski jumper Anna Rupprecht spoke openly about menstrual pain in sport.
“I don't feel like making any excuses about why it wasn't that good.
That's part of it, it's part of being freed from taboos," said the 26-year-old.
Rupprecht had already reported live on TV that she also had problems with menstrual pain in the individual on Thursday.
Rupprecht ended up in ninth place.
“I've been extremely hard on myself.
Thank God the period wears off eventually,” she told an audience of millions.
She is happy that everything came together in the team competition, “although I was physically shitty that week”.
Rupprecht sought the public because she thinks that it just has to be said.
“It's often the case that in a sensitive sport like ski jumping you don't have that much control and you just have trouble on the hill.
Every woman in the world gets that,” she said.
She received encouragement from double world champion Katharina Althaus: "You're either lucky or unlucky, that's part of it.
It's not always easy.«
The cycle theme becomes more present
More and more female athletes are speaking openly about menstrual cramps and how they affect performance.
Most recently, ski superstar Mikaela Shiffrin told the Austrian broadcaster ORF: "After yesterday I was pretty tired, I'm not having the best moment in my monthly cycle." A mistake by the translator caused amusement on the Internet.
From the English words "I'm kind of in an unfortunate time of my monthly cycle" he had the German sentence "Es ist very exhausting.
I don't even get to ride my bike, which I do every month."
Last year, professional golfer Lydia Ko commented on menstrual cramps at a tournament in California - apparently leaving one commentator speechless.
Interviewer Jerry Foltz from the "Golf Channel" could only say "Thank you very much" to the openness of the New Zealander.
The topic also received worldwide attention at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, when Chinese swimmer Fu Yuanhui said in front of cameras after her team's fourth place in the 4x100 meter medley relay: "My period started last night and I'm feeling pretty weak and really tired.«
According to a SPIEGEL survey from 2021, only four of the 17 Olympic bases take the topic into account, at least in individual sports.
The period can lead to listlessness or even abdominal cramps, among other things - and thus affect performance.
ast/dpa/sid