If you are a woman, then you will know exactly what I am talking about when I mention period pains. That time every month when we feel tired, sore, and hormonal, to name a few symptoms that many women experience.
As women, we tend to grin and bear it. We just ‘get on with it’. But what happens when your period announces itself halfway through a badminton match where the whole world is watching?
That is exactly what happened to Kirsty Gilmour, who is a badminton player for both Scotland and Great Britain, during a match in Birmingham. The game was the All England Open, and she was playing An Se-young from South Korea.
She felt her period come on during her warmup before the actual game and went to deal with what needed to be dealt with. Kirsty mentioned, like most of us women, there is a specific pocket in a specific bag where all our necessary products live so we can sort periods quickly.
She had to decide whether she was going to stay on the court to play or, go and fix the situation in the privacy of a bathroom. As there are no rules on what happens when a player has a period during a badminton game, Kirsty unfortunately ended up with a yellow card and a fine for taking longer than the two-minutes bathroom break that was allocated. Both of these penalties would stay on her badminton recordl. To top it off, by the time she got back on court for the third game, she was left flustered from her ordeal.
If there had been proper rules in place, then the whole situation could have been avoided.
As this was the first time it had happened in the badminton world, there weren’t any protocols in place to sort this out quickly and efficiently.
Fortunately for Kirsty, the yellow card, monetary fine and penalised badminton record were all rescinded.
Wellness diaries and training
Kirsty explained that she completes a daily wellness diary which takes into account sleep quality, stress levels, any soreness from games or training, energy levels and of course periods.
It is checked regularly by her coaching team, who then make a plan from there on any training that needs to be adapted for the day. It is assessed against markers to figure out what changes can be made to have the best results for the athlete and athletes training, however, at this level of training and competition there is little wiggle room. For example, some of the training may be changed to skills training rather than high-volume training.
The other side of this coin is that the badminton world is predominantly male-oriented when it comes to coaches. Kirsty shared that she has seen great changes in her time with regards to this, but there must be trust between her and her male coaches and topics such as periods are talked about and discussed openly. At the end of the day, there needs to be trust, honesty and science when it comes to periods, she mentioned.
There are also workshops about periods in the sporting world and how to handle them available with the Scottish Institute of Sports, for more information.
Younger generation
When I asked Kirsty about the younger generation of girls coming through who may have just started their period and how they should face sport, she said that periods shouldn’t be a reason to stop taking part. She also said that there are far more advantages to playing sport as well, which include community, leadership, communication and fitness. These far outweighed a period stopping play.
Rules in the sporting world
There have been some good changes in the sporting world already when it comes to rules, but there needs to be more. The recent changes have been in 2023, where the All England Club (tennis) permitted female players to wear dark-coloured undershorts during Wimbledon. Another change, which is coming from Ireland and the sport of Camogie, states that the girls in the team will be wearing shorts at their next match instead of skorts. This change is underway as of their recent game earlier this month. These changes are for the good, and the hope is for a better sporting world, it’s just going to take some time to do them. The other side of these changes is that some countries, like the UK and Ireland, are making them, but for some countries, change still needs to happen, as the Chinese badminton player Huang Dongping found out when she found herself in a similar situation to Kirsty. Huang Dongping was handed a red card when she had to disappear off the court to go and change her clothes when her period made an unscheduled appearance.
Kirsty’s story
Periods are just a small part of being a woman, but they shouldn’t stop a woman from participating in sports. Rules need to be considered though, and as Kirsty has mentioned, the rules are changing slowly, which means in another few years hopefully, a period break during a sporting event will be catered for with the utmost care and respect. The other aspect is that the more women talk about periods, the more it will be recognised and discussed in the open. Kirsty mentioned that when she first started talking about her story that she was nervous about it, but now, several weeks down the line, she is very blasé and comfortable with it.
At the end of the day, open conversations help to make people feel more comfortable and not embarrassed. That’s how sports is going to make changes for the better, and coaches are going to understand their players wants and needs.
If you’d like more information on getting involved in badminton, you can check out the SportScotland site.
