Jo Pavey condemns Nike for 'punishing' pregnant sports stars by pausing sponsorship payments

Jo Pavey has become the first British athlete to join a growing chorus of Nike-sponsored stars to condemn the global brand for cutting off sponsorship payments when they became pregnant.

The 45-year-old, who won the 10,000 metres gold medal at the 2014 European Championships ten months after giving birth to her second child, told how she is among those to be "punished" by the sponsor for starting families.

The scandal first escalated after a host of American athletes complained over the brand's "Dream Crazy" advertising campaign, fronted by Serena Williams, to call out  gender inequality and discrimination across sport. "Winning 23 Grand Slams, having a baby, and then coming back for more: crazy, crazy, crazy and crazy," narrated Williams, in a bid by Nike to promote how she and other brand stars had overcome doubters to instead smash through glass ceilings.

However, three months on, Pavey and American runners Alysia Montano, Phoebe Wright and Kara Goucher have all claimed the brand discriminates against pregnant athletes by cutting off payments. The only Briton to compete on track in five different Olympics was dropped by Nike as a sponsored athlete shortly after becoming the European champion at the age of 40. She has now said the company froze her sponsorship after she became pregnant first with son, Jacob, and then with daughter, Emily.

"It is important for companies to look at messages they are sending out," Pavey told Sky News.  "They are promoting women saying 'come on, dream your dreams, you can achieve things'. But then, when they are under circumstances like becoming a mum, then they are signifying that could end their goals and that is definitely the wrong message."

Nike’s agreements reportedly give athletes who temporarily cannot compete a six month grace period, during which the company can reduce their pay but cannot terminate the sponsorship. According to one recent contract, Nike can still reduce an athlete’s pay “for any reason” if the athlete doesn’t meet a specific performance threshold, for example a top five world ranking. There are no exceptions for childbirth, pregnancy or maternity. However, in a statement, Nike claims they have now changed their policy on sponsorship - and do not penalise pregnant athletes.

Pavey, from Honiton, Devon, said her contract was "immediately paused" when she told Nike she was pregnant. "One of the main problems is the target to get the contract back and the timescale," she said. "It was the joy of running that kept me going because you think 'what will, be will be' and I was focused on being a mum. But you don't want to feel punished for being pregnant." Pavey spoke out after Wright, sponsored by Nike from 2010 to 2016, said getting pregnant is "the kiss of death for a female athlete”. “There’s no way I’d tell Nike if I were pregnant,” she added.

American 800m runner Montano, once in the top three female runners in the world, appeared in a video showing her running at eight months' pregnant with her first child. It attracted worldwide attention, but she stressed that exercising while pregnant is "healthy for the mom and the baby as long as you're having an uncomplicated pregnancy."

She has since revealed she faced changes to her pay from Nike if she did not return quickly after giving birth. She also told the New York Times that she was forced to train with a brace around her stomach to support her broken abdominal muscles.

The advert featuring Williams particularly enraged Montano. "The greatest disconnect is that they are not backing up what they are preaching, you know," she told the CBS Morning show in the US. "They are making this very grand gesture when they make these ads that are moving. 'Just do it' is their slogan, but ultimately, behind closed doors, everything that is a dream for women in particular is something that they are basically stuffing you down and saying actually, that's not really for you, this is for TV."

A Nike spokesman said: "Nike is proud to sponsor thousands of female athletes. As is common practice, our agreements do include contractual performance obligations. Historically, a few female athletes had reduced payments based on failure to meet their contractual performance obligations. We recognised that there was a need for more consistency in our approach and in 2018 we standardised our approach across all sports so that no female athlete is penalised financially for pregnancy."