Emma Pallant-Brown got her period while competing in a triathlon. Photo: P.T.O. Wearing sunglasses, Emma Pallant-Brown looked little different when she was photographed storming the finish line at the European Open Triathlon in Ibiza last month.
Except for one thing.
Pallant-Brown, who bled through a hot pink and sky blue bodysuit, was on her period. She put in a fresh tampon as late as possible, but after nearly three hours of racing, that wasn't enough.
The photo, later posted on social media by the Organization of Professional Triathletes, drew a nasty comment from one male Instagram user who took offense. «Not the most flattering photo of Emma — of course you can crop it better,» he wrote in a direct message to the organization.
The photo remained in place, but the fourth-ranked event, Pallant-Brown, did not.
“When I first saw the comment, I panicked a little,” says the 34-year-old, speaking about her experience for the first time. «I thought, 'Is this really the stage we're still at?'
Emma Pallant-Brown celebrates winning the IRONMAN Women's Division in Colorado. Photo: Justin Tafoya/Getty Images
Outraged by the unsolicited remark, Pallant-Brown responded by pointing out that menstruating competition is an unattractive reality for women in sports. Within hours, her image went viral.
While more and more elite female athletes are talking publicly about menstruation, there remains a reluctance to talk about it openly. Lydia Koh, world number three golfer, left a reporter speechless in a post-match interview at last year's LPGA event when she attributed lower back strain to «this time of the month» while British sprinter Dina Asher-Smith spoke of «girly things » after pulling herself up in the European 100m finals last summer.
More female athletes are now adjusting their workouts to fit their menstrual cycle thanks to advances in technology for women and menstruation tracking apps, so why does the image of Pallant-Brown cause so much anxiety?< /p>
“The sport is still too glossy,” she says. «These clean photos of beautiful women with dainty hips don't resonate with young girls who think, 'Is this what I want to do?'
As a child, Pallant-Brown was inspired by Kelly Holmes' double gold at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Luckily, she was mentored by a former British middle-distance runner. But by the time she was 17, in desperation to be like her idol, Pallant-Brown had developed restrictive eating habits. Succumbing to the unfounded myth that being light means she'll run faster, she compulsively eliminated fat from her diet.
“My trainer had weekly sessions on the treadmill and made me weigh myself before each session,” she recalls. “If I was below a certain weight, then I was not allowed to train for several days. I remember in the car on the way there I always drank all that water and tried to make myself harder to run. At the time, I thought I was just doing what all athletes do, but it was a super unhealthy mindset.»
Pallant-Brown completely stopped her periods — she recalls that there were only two of them in almost five years. Because her body couldn't produce enough estrogen, the female sex hormone, her bone density became dangerously low. Her severe knee injury, which eventually prompted her to switch to triathlon, was not improving.
“The tendon in my knee completely ruptured,” she says. “Because I cut fats and omega-3s from my diet, I didn’t have foods that would help heal the original tendon rupture.”
It wasn't until she took part in a cooking class hosted by Holmes as part of a mentoring initiative that Pallant-Brown realized how unhealthy her behavior had become. “Kelly saw me break an egg and take out the yolk,” recalls Pallant-Brown. “I just added protein, and she was like, “This is not a recipe, you need a whole egg.”
«I was very proud of the fact that I told her that I do not eat fat, but she said:» Are you kidding me? It flipped the switch — that was the starting point that made me want to change. ”
Emma Pallant-Brown has made great strides in the middle distance triathlon. Photo: Jorn Polleks/Getty Images
The Pallant-Brown story is alarmingly common among women in endurance sports. The Women Athletes Health Report found that a third of female athletes ignored missed periods, and many considered this to be normal or, in some cases, beneficial for an active person.
Based on 769 female athletes, it was found that 30% of their doctors said menstrual irregularities were “normal” given their level of activity.
Data released last month from the UK Elite Athletes Menstrual Health Study shows that more than a fifth of female athletes have irregular menstrual cycles, but half receive no menstrual health support from their national governing body.
Pallant- Browne's Periods returned shortly after she entered the world of triathlon in 2012. With a healthy food mentality — and proudly four kilos heavier than her running days — she is now one of the fastest women in the world in the middle distance triathlon, with 33 podium finishes.
Two months ago, she became the first woman to score a hat-trick at the World Duathlon Championships and ran a personal best 10,000m in London that year. Her next big goal? Win the Ironman World Championship in August. “I have a third, I have a second, but still don’t have that half of the Ironman title,” she says with a smile. Brown, even if she had her period.
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