Swimmer Slams Tokyo Olympics For Making Her Leave Breastfeeding Child Back Home

Olympic bound swimmer Ona Carbonell slammed Tokyo Olympics in an Instagram post on June 20 for imposing extremely drastic measures on travelling with infants or young babies, making it impossible for her to travel to Tokyo with her breastfeeding baby.

The Olympian wrote in the said Instagram post that despite some news suggested that it is possible for the athletes to travel to Tokyo with their infants or young children, the athletes have been informed of some drastic measures that made it impossible for Carbonell to consider the option.

"After receiving countless expressions of support and encouragement to go to Tokyo with Kai I wanted to express my disappointment and disillusionment that I will finally have to travel without him," she wrote.

Picture Credit: Ona Carnobell/Instagram

According to a report by Newsweek, the 31-year-old athlete claimed that her child, Kai, and her partner, Pablo, wouldn't be allowed to leave their hotel room in Tokyo for approximately 20 days if they travelled with Carbonell.

Measures On Travelling With Infant

To breastfeed Kai whenever he needed during the day, Carbonell would have to leave the Olympic villa, the team's bubble and travel to her partner's hotel, risking her team's health during the Games, she added in the Instagram video.

Carbonell added that now she will have to use a breast pump for around 20 days to feed Kai and hopes that he will still want to be breastfed after she returns, adding that it is something very important for her.

The two times Olympics medal receiver claimed that travelling without Kai was a very complicated decision for her and the video was meant to normalise the struggle of other athletes who might be struggling with the same problem.

The Spanish artistic swimming team captain hopes that her actions will help for future competitions, tournaments and Olympic Games.

&t=341s