‘More people need to research it, people don’t always talk about it’ – Dina Asher-Smith says period-induced calf cramps derailed 200m final
After pulling up with cramp in a disappointing outing in the 100m race, Dina Asher-Smith flew into Friday’s 200m final at the European Athletics Championships with the fastest qualification time of 22.53 seconds on Tuesday. Following the race, the sprinter revealed that the cramps that forced her out of the 100m race were caused by her period.
The 26-year-old is one of the most promising track and field athletes in Britain’s ranks, and her statement came on a subject that is likely to be taboo even today. Smith called for more research into the subject, after seeing her colleagues struggle with similar issues.
“More people need to research it from a sports science perspective, because it’s huge,” she was quoted as saying by The Guardian. “People don’t always talk about it either. Sometimes you see girls that have been so consistent and there’s a random dip and behind the scenes, they’ve been really struggling. Everybody else will go ‘What’s that? That’s random.”
“So we could just do with more funding. I feel if it was a men’s issue there would be a million different ways to combat things.”
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Smith is not the only top-level sportsperson to have addressed these issues, with tennis players on the WTA Tour coming out to speak about it as well.
The WTA Tour has long been criticised for its inconsistencies in comparison to men’s tennis, especially with regard to the top players failing to consistently dominate the big events and Grand Slams. But World No. 1 Iga Swiatek broke the taboo about speaking about PMS (Premenstrual Syndrome) and how it has caused dips in her level and losses even when she was in tune at a high level of training.
“I worked pretty hard the past two days to understand a little bit more of why I felt so bad during the match,” Swiatek was quoted as saying by the WTA website after her loss to Maria Sakkari at the 2021 WTA Finals. “I don’t want to make excuses or something. It’s pretty hard to talk about that because I know in sports it’s not that often. But like PMS really hit me that day. I’m telling this for any young girl who doesn’t know what’s going on. Don’t worry, it’s normal.”
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China’s Zheng Qinwen also spoke about struggling with cramps during her fourth-round loss to Swiatek at the French Open earlier this year. In her post-match press conference, she revealed that the pain in her stomach was difficult to deal with while playing professional sport.
“It’s just girls’ things, you know. The first day is always so tough and then I have to do sport and I always have so much pain in the first day. And I couldn’t go against my nature,” she said per CNN.
“I wish I can be a man on court, but I cannot in that moment…I really wish I can be (a) man (so) that I don’t have to suffer from this.”