When Carbonell returned from the Games, Kai no longer breastfed. "If it's possible to bring your coach, it should be possible to bring your husband or a parent along with your baby," she says. "That would have meant that every time I had to breastfeed my son, I would have to break the Olympic bubble - possibly putting myself, my son and the whole team at risk."Ĭarbonell said she understood the Covid pandemic meant caution was needed, but that she shouldn't have had to make the decision to leave Kai at home. She said: "The Olympics told me I could bring my son, but he would have to stay in a separate place.
She called it "the right decision for women in sports."īut even after the rules were changed - with Tokyo 2020 organisers saying "nursing children" could travel to Tokyo "when necessary" - Carbonell had an incredibly tough decision to make. Several athletes raised the issue of breastfeeding mothers, including Canadian basketball player Kim Gaucher, who won an appeal external-link to take her baby to Tokyo. Through it all, her drive to compete at another Olympics is clear - but the challenges don't let up.Īs part of the Games' Covid-19 safety protocols, organisers initially banned athletes' families attending.
She speaks in the film about how exhausting that can be, but says that if she doesn't do it she will feel sore and swollen. Of course, this was all happening during a global pandemic too, meaning training on Zoom and plans thrown into disarray by competitions being rescheduled.Īs a breastfeeding mother, among the practical impacts on Carbonell was the fact her pattern of pumping milk for Kai was disrupted.
"I get home and I don't even have the energy to pick Kai up." "I am incredibly exhausted and I'm feeling a lot of pressure," she says. At times we see Carbonell crying in her car - too tired to drive home from training and thinking of giving up. In 2018, she won the Spanish version of Masterchef Celebrity.The film - called Starting Over - is a study in the serious sacrifices needed to juggle elite sport and motherhood. Her extra-sporting life revolves around art: design and fashion are at the center of her studies, and may soon be her profession. Her aim in life is to improve as an athlete and a person and achieve success through teamwork, discipline and effort. In 2013 she received the Silver Medal from Spain’s Royal Order of Sporting Merit. Last September she decided to take a break in her career and dedicate herself to her family. She won two Olympic medals in London 2012 – silver in duet and bronze in the team event– and earned a diploma in Rio 2016. Over the course of the past seven world championships, Ona has won a total of 23 medals, becoming the woman with the most world medals in history and in third place on the list of men and women. Her club, the Club Natació Sabadell, of which she has been a member since 2013, is one of Spain’s oldest swimming groups. At 14 she joined the Spanish national synchronized swimming team. Ona Carbonell began her athletic career in rhythmic gymnastics, though at age 10 she switched to synchronized swimming.
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