Felix, other top stars, fight track’s pregnancy penalty

DOHA, Qatar (AP) — For decades, the message to women in track and field was crystal clear: get pregnant, lose sponsorship money.

A rebellion led by some of the sport’s top runners, Allyson Felix, Kara Goucher and Alysia Montano, is helping to change that.

Two months after the U.S. women’s soccer players stated their case for equal pay, women in track and field come to their major event, the world championships in Doha, having found their footing on another important crusade — retaining full pay from their sponsorship deals after they get pregnant.

Nike responded to the outcry, announcing in May that it would not apply performance-related pay reductions for pregnant athletes for a consecutive period of 12 months. Then, last month, the company expanded that to 18 months — starting eight months before the due date — and pledged to include specific language about pregnancy in its contracts to reinforce the policy.

Nike said in a statement that it recognized it could more and “that there is an important opportunity for the sports industry to evolve to support female athletes.”

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