Alysia Montano is a professional runner who's competed at the highest possible level. She's a two-time world champion and an Olympian. She's breaking the barriers that limit a woman’s choice to pursue and thrive in both career and motherhood.
Alysia Montano is a professional runner who's competed at the highest possible level. She's a two-time world champion and an Olympian. She's breaking the barriers that limit a woman’s choice to pursue and thrive in both career and motherhood.
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Alysia's nonprofit &Mother:
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Sometimes going after a wild idea means mustering up courage and speaking out when you know things aren't right. Even if you have to risk important relationships, your livelihood or your reputation. It can take a lot of courage to stay true to your integrity. Professional runner, Alysia Montano knows how scary it can be to stand up for what you believe in. She's been using her voice to advocate for athletes who want to have children. Sometimes women in professional sports lose their sponsorships and brand contracts when they decide to become mothers. Alysia knows about this firsthand because it happened to her. A few years ago, she spoke out publicly about this issue and her voice is still shaping the conversation in the industry today. I'm Shelby Stanger, and this is Wild Ideas Worth Living, an REI Co-op Studios production.
Alysia Montano is a professional runner who's competed at the highest possible level. At one point, she was one of the top three runners in the world. She's a two-time world champion and an Olympian. When Alysia competes, she runs with a flower in her hair. She tucks it into her ponytail because it represents something important to her.
The flower in my hair represents being bold and courageous. It's about recognizing just like the strength in my being. A flower a lot of times represents like divine femininity in a lot of ways. We see it in so many different spaces where we are recognizing the feminine being, and it's not supposed to be the ultra cliche of, "Give me flowers because I'm a girl." It's about taking back that idea of delicacy and how we see the flower represented. So wearing the flower in my hair as I'm moving my body in motion, knowing that I am representing strength with that divine femininity, I wanted for that to be how people see women in sport.
Throughout her career, Alysia has worked hard to show the world that women athletes are strong and bold and that their careers and accomplishments deserve respect. In 2014, Alysia became pregnant with her first child and her sponsorship from a major brand was put on pause. She didn't have a source of income until she was able to hit her performance metrics again. This left Alysia in a tough spot. Her work was asking her to choose between having a baby and building her career. Eventually, Alysia spoke up. In 2019, she partnered with the New York Times to create a video that took the athletic industry by storm.
Alysia Montano, welcome to Wild Ideas Worth Living.
Thank you so much for having me. Excited to be here.
You've done so much for women, for running, for moms. And I'm curious in 2019, this article, that's sort of how I discovered you, there's this big article in the New York Times about being a mother and being a professional runner and how those two didn't jive. You raised your voice and you made some things happen and changed the game for female athletes. And I'm curious... Well, first if you want to talk about that time, that had have been really hard, but I'm really curious also what's changed since.
Yeah, so I think one of the things that I find really just interesting is how people see people. This has sound so just basic, but what I mean by that is I think that as I grow into adulthood and you roll into different partnerships and relationships, I feel like people forget the base of the fact that we are all people, we're all human. And so for me, rolling into my career as a professional athlete, I never thought that I wouldn't have an opportunity to be myself, that I would have to be boxed into a space that, one, is discriminatory, two, really oppresses individuals from fully coming into themselves. Many of us walk into this career as teens, some of us early 20s, some of us later on.
But so for me, when I decided that I'm not going to let this discriminatory and systemically broken system dictate how I lead and live my life, I know adding family, adding children to your life, expanding my family in that way isn't harming anyone. And I hoped that my partners and sponsors at the time would see me as human, which is not a lot to ask for, but seems like it's a lot to ask from people. What I recognized in doing so was the holes that did not allow for there to be room for that to actually exist. And what I'm talking about is our contractual language that didn't have any space for maternity protections or growth in that area. You're just literally, when you're looking at a contract, you've see no protections for yourself. It is a kind of dark place to be in where you just hope that somebody trusts in the ability for humans to love one another and care for one another. And that just isn't the case. It's not in writing, which is sad.
So your contract was paused. Your contract with one of your biggest sponsors when you got pregnant, they were like, "We'll, just pause your contract"?
Yeah. So my first partner coming out of college, when I mentioned pregnancy protections and noticing that it wasn't within our contracts, I asked about like, "Hey, what would happen if I were to become pregnant and have a baby?" And they so bluntly just noted, "We would just pause your contract and stop paying you." And what I recognize is that this partner did not support women wholly, which to me, that's not somebody who I want to partner with. And then I decided I needed to move on to another partner in hopes that that has to be a one-off, like they just are whack. And turns out it was an industry-wide issue.
I remember after having my daughter and having my contract cut for having her and proving myself that's the biggest thing. It's this proof point of like we have to prove our value, our ability to be whole people, which is wild to me. It was like I won nationals at six months postpartum. I won nationals at 10 months postpartum. I broke an American record and a world record. I won two medals that year. I made the world championship team and it was like-
You even raced when you were eight months pregnant.
I ran with that partnership eight months pregnant, sharing about my hope to de-stigmatize what career women could look like, and just people. I don't know. "This is kind of how people end up here. Just so you know, all of you."
"We all come out of a mom."
Yes.
"All of you."
Yeah, we're part of a pregnant person.
Alysia became a pro athlete right out of college, and she knew that the contract she signed expected her to perform at a world-class level no matter what. As a young woman who was thinking of starting a family, she understood that she'd probably lose her income during her pregnancy and postpartum period. It wasn't fair, but Alysia knew that it was par for the course and pursuing a career as a professional athlete.
Six years after she signed that contract, she had her first child and her main sponsor paused their agreement. After she delivered her baby, Alysia worked hard to regain her performance and moved on. But when that same sponsor came out with an ad campaign a few years later, Alysia felt the injustice all over again. The ad was about being more than an athlete. It told viewers you can be a football player and a homecoming queen, a refugee and a pro soccer player. You get the idea. When Alysia saw the ad, she felt confused and defeated. How could this brand celebrate people being multifaceted while also taking away her athletic sponsorship when she became a mom? Fueled by years of frustration, Alysia took action.
When that first partner that I was with came out with that ad that was like, "Dream crazy," and I'm like, "Ah, psych?" No. That was just the straw that broke the camel's back. I was like, "That's not what you really believe in." And everybody's out here loving to pretend that they believe in women's rights and they believe in protecting women and helping women elevate and grow and have a seat at the table, create their own rooms with seats at the table. It was just was BS. I always just wanted to be authentically me and I deserve the right to be that.
And so with that commercial, it was like, "On the record, here's the deal." And then it opened up the door for so many other athletes to tell their stories. And I didn't know that. I was really, I had nothing to lose. I was now three years without a contract because I told that partner that I wanted to have another kid, and they were like, "Absolutely not." Which was shocking to me and devastating. But at the same time I was like, "I want people to work with me. If I share that this happened with more than one company, how will I be supported?" And what I recognize was there are so many women who won't get this opportunity to be supported if I don't speak up.
I'm curious to hear your why. How did you get the courage to talk about something? That was so scary. I mean, there's NDAs. There's all sorts of things that could happened. You did it anyway.
Yeah, yeah. Definitely I had. My daughter, she was born in 2014 and that op-ed came out in 2019.
Wow.
So it was a-
I didn't realize that.
Yeah, it was-
Yeah, that's a long time ago.
It's a long time. It was a build, if to say the least, of courage. And it was a lot of soul-searching of not only what I deserved, but what women deserved, what people deserved. What I saw just in the sports industry in general was, again, I name it like this because this is how I've seen it is there's this loss of humanhood. There's this loss of you're commoditized to the 10th degree and absolutely not if you're going to be someone who's pregnant, and let's add to all of the groups of marginalization that devalue people and what I recognize in growth and with time and fighting for myself and fighting to find my way back into sport and deciding I'm not going to let any career industry or people dictate my happiness in what I do with my life.
A few years after Alysia had her first child, she was ready to expand her family again. At that point, her sponsor told her that they would terminate her contract. Alysia decided to have another kid anyway, because it's what she wanted. By the way, Alysia is now a mother of three. She had her third kid in 2020.
With my first child, when I became pregnant, I hesitated to share it. I was like 10 weeks. But I also felt it was important and it was part of my authenticity and me wanting to just... I knew I was doing nothing wrong. And so when I shared I was pregnant, I called, I brought up all the courage to call him, and I was like, "I'm pregnant." They're like, "What?" I was like, "I'm pregnant." They're like, "What?" I was like, "I am pregnant." And they're like, "Oh my gosh, are you calling us because you're afraid of what's going to happen in your contract?" And I was like, "Yeah, absolutely."
"Don't worry about your contract. There was a woman at the head of athlete marketing and partnerships. The CEO was not a woman, but she guaranteed verbally the same protections." The problem is she left by the time my daughter was born and there were two men that took her place, and that was the first thing that they said in my contract. It was like, "Hey, look at your contract. You didn't perform top tier in the last year." I was like, "You mean the year I was pregnant for nine months of them?" I'm like, "She'd said it was going to be great, it was going to be fine. But the thing is it wasn't in writing." So I still even encouraged that athlete and all athletes to get it in writing. And so that was why I started my nonprofit organization &Mother and it's about allowing for us to have our rights known and a space of advocacy. We are pushing the industry leaders to fight for and support women athletes, and we're fighting for contractual language standards that are not standards for men.
That was what I was told. They're like, "This contract is standard." I'm like, "This is a standard contract for men. You have an injury clause in there. There's nothing about maternity or pregnancy, postpartum protections. You're expecting for people to be back in a performance body in what? 12 weeks period of time. You want us to be just winning all sorts of medals."
I think the one thing I don't want is for athletes to think that they have to live in my first pregnancy where I was able to win nationals at six months postpartum. That's not the standard. We need to be allowing people space. My second, I was hardly able to participate in that way because, one, I was cut from my contract and now you're thinking you don't have enough money to even participate and train in the sport in that way. A schedule where you're carrying your baby with you because you now are childcare because the money that you got from your job to help you with childcare is not existing. It's just all sorts of different stories. With my third, it took me a year to even feel like I can run more than three miles. So it's just also different. And the standard can't be rushed back into it, otherwise you're going to lose your livelihood.
When we come back, Alysia talks about how she's impacted women athletes across the country, the organization she started called &Mother and how motherhood has influenced her perspective on running.
When the New York Times came out with a video about professional runner Alysia Montano, it sparked an important conversation in the sports industry. Women athletes started speaking out about losing their sponsorships when they became pregnant. Even for professional athletes, returning to training and racing after giving birth isn't easy. Shortly after the video was published, Alysia started an organization called &Mother. The nonprofit fights for women to be able to pursue motherhood and a career at the same time.
Okay. So &Mother, talk to me about when you started it.
So my New York Times op-ed came out in 2019 and the reception was amazing. It was global reception. I think it really had people see the catalyst of the time when I ran pregnant and then the second time that I ran pregnant in 2017 at Nationals and then they saw the culmination like, "This is what this is leading up to," and I decided like, "Hey, we have a lot of momentum off of this movement and I need to make sure that we can make this movement into impact. What are we going to do?" So 2019, the op-ed came out in Mother's Day of 2020. We launched our nonprofit, we were full steam ahead. After the op-ed came out, I decided to get with as many people as I possibly could to kind of help me found the nonprofit and put in place what exactly we were trying to do. Then a pandemic existed that happened. My third child was born in February 2020. Somehow I was able to garner as much awareness as possible to get us to our third year now.
Yeah, I love it. The name &Mother, to me, it's like, "You're a doctor, you're a lawyer, you're a runner, you're a professional athlete, you're a surfer, you're a snowboarder and mother." Is that-
That's the goal.
Okay, cool.
That's it. You got it.
I love it. It's very powerful. Do you have any stories from your community of how it's impacted any women?
Oh my gosh. Can do we have time for another podcast? This is why I'm still doing this. It's like these impact stories are so huge. Just even knowing from our Changemakers Grant &Mother, the 14 athletes that were grantees from last year and hearing their stories of what &Mother has done for them and what me speaking out has done for them. Hearing Allyson Felix who's on &Mother's board kind of share that she would've never shared her story if it wasn't for me sharing my story. Kara Goucher, the same way, whom we all know. Those impact stories are huge. And then there's women who are running marathons, half-marathons, 5Ks, 10Ks, who are sharing stories from their career tracks and all sharing about the levels and loss of support when they became mothers and what they're fighting for and how it's encouraged them to continue to fight for themselves.
And then I have people that are allies that are like, "I would've never known this if it wasn't for me following you, Alysia. I've always watched you running. I've always rooted for you in sport, and I myself am not a parent. I don't plan on becoming a parent, but I know how I need to show up and support parents across the board." And that's huge. You don't have to be in someone else's shoes to know that we need to care for them.
&Mother is partnering with some of the biggest races in the country. Last year they were at the New York City Marathon where they provided lactation accommodations along the racecourse. At the USA Track and Field Nationals, they ensured childcare onsite for all families in the sports industry, not just the athletes. &Mother also pushes brands to adopt contractual language that protects women who want to have children. These programs offer the kind of support that Alysia has always wanted as a professional runner and a mother of three.
How has being a mom changed your relationship with running? How has it enhanced it?
Oh my gosh. There are levels to this. Well, first, I mean, this is just the truth, children come along and they require a lot of time. I care about the time that I spend with my children. I care about them seeing me active. I care about encouraging them to be active. And it's made me really aware of how I talk to myself, how I talk about running, how I talk about movement, how I share with them about their own pursuits and how they play and those feelings. I want them to remember those feelings of play because ultimately that's what running starts out for for us, right? It's play, and that's what it can continue to be. I think somewhere along the line for a lot of people, especially those folks who are doing it in a performance aspect, and some people who get stuck on numbers, myself included, always going for the PR, feeling down about, "Oh, if I don't get it, why am I doing this?" Getting back to that core of play, seeing my kids enjoy it in that way always brings me back to my core.
So what does that look like for you?
I feel like I speak in a playful manner with my kids. Gosh, my tone is always about encouragement. My daughter, for instance, she just joined Girls on the Run, which I'm so stoked about. And I did not ask her to do it, so I was like, she's like, "Mom, I want to join this afterschool program." I go, "Okay, what is it?" She's like, "Girls on the Run." And I was like, "Ugh, keep it inside. Oh God." I was like, "Cool. When is it?" On the internet, "Oh my gosh." She sent me nothing. I don't have papers or anything to figure it out. I just did the fast Google search. I looked at our area, signed her up. But when we're talking about running and all the things that she wants to do with it the way I just talked to her is just encouraging her to have a good time and also letting her know it's okay to be competitive, it's okay to fall, but you do need to get back up.
Love it. Alysia, you're so badass. I love talking with you. Do you have any magic run stories that you want to share?
Oh my gosh, I have so many stories. I honestly would love it if you guys could come out here, hang out with us for a little bit, because if you kind of saw how I rolled, you would probably be a little terrified.
How do you do it all?
I just do it. It's the fling method. It's the fling method. It's put one limb out and then everything else follows.
My thing is my north star is happiness, and I always go towards that feeling. I'm not saying I'm not human. I'm not exempt from depressive feelings and anger and any of those things, but my north star is happiness. And that is not to be cliche. It just is true for me. It's again the same reason why I chose to have my kids. I never let anybody else dictate what was going to be happy for me because I can feel that ping of my intentional being like who I know I am, and I just flink towards her. That's who I want. That's who I want to hang out with. It's her.
Alysia Montano, thank you so much for coming on Wild Ideas Worth Living. You are such a rockstar. If you want to learn more about Alysia's organization, &Mother, you can go to their website andother.org. That's A-N-D-M-O-T-H-E-R.org. To keep in touch with Alysia, her latest projects and her adorable kids, check out her Instagram @alysiamontano. That's A-L-Y-S-I-A-M-O-N-T-A-N-O.
Wild Ideas Worth Living is part of the REI Podcast Network. It's hosted by me, Shelby Stanger, produced by Annie Fassler, Sylvia Thomas, and Sam Peers Nitzberg of Puddle Creative. And our senior producer is Jenny Barber. Our executive producers are Paolo Mottola and Joe Crosby. As always, we love it when you follow this show, when you rate it, and when you take the time to review it wherever you listen. And remember, some of the best adventures happen when you follow your wildest ideas.