Skylar Diggins-Smith, a valiant woman and mother

Being a WNBA star, a four-time All-Star Game pick and a member of Team USA haven’t given Skylar Diggins-Smith so much popularity as when she played pregnant for an entire season. The Dallas Wings’ point guard, who's now 27, played 32 games during the regular season and 1 playoff game while pregnant with her first child. Skylar decided to keep that information private.

“Nobody (knew). Just me, my husband, my mom, and our doctor. That’s it. No coaches, none of my teammates, no fans… When you first find out you want to keep it to yourself. It's personal. We didn't want everybody to know. At a certain stage in your pregnancy, you don't tell people early because it was the first three months, so we didn't tell because you have to be careful, because you don't know. I talked to my doctor the whole time that I played to make sure that I was safe and that the baby was safe and that we were doing the right things. She said I could play and finish the season. It made me so tired and exhausted! I'm the team captain so I had to make sure I brought a lot of energy and still I played a lot of minutes, I played almost the whole game every game. It would be hard for me to wake up in the mornings, but I got to stay in shape during my pregnancy, at the beginning. I played (until I was) three and a half months pregnant. I was in such good shape you couldn't really see anything. If you look at some pictures at the end (of the season), maybe you could see a little thing.”

After the birth of Seven, a name the parents chose for biblical reasons, Diggins-Smith completely took on a fight for working mothers, particularly those that are athletes and decide to have children: “I think that some people think that you can't be a mom and work and be an athlete. You have to have support from your job and organization. You have special needs as a mom, and they have to be met. In the WNBA I don't know how many moms we have, probably like ten or twelve, maybe. We really don't have a good system in place for working moms in the WNBA. What I want to do is continue to fight and have a conversation on how we can improve the support, on how we can improve the conditions for working moms now and in the future. I'm just trying to speak up to make it better for the next generation and see what we can do to make changes now to support working moms.

The 2019 WNBA season didn't feature Diggins-Smith. The Wings’ point guard went through a period of post-partum depression and gave priority to her, and her family’s, health. Now that she’s back in action with the United States’ national team in the Olympic Pre-Qualifiers in Bahía Blanca, Argentina, the player talked about her experience in detail: “It's just something you can't explain. I was just going through a lot of emotions. I wanted to stay with my baby. I wanted to stay with my baby 24/7. It was hard for me to go to practice for five and six hours. I'm breastfeeding my baby, so it was hard for me to leave, and I needed to pump, and I needed to feed my baby. Sometimes you're emotional, you cry. I would cry, I would be tired, and I didn't know why. Sometimes I wouldn't eat for two or three days. And you don't sleep, you don't get any sleep. It was just constant worrying, fear, just scared, making sure my baby was OK. Me and my husband, our marriage was great. Me and my friendships, it was great. It's just a lot of emotions. Your emotions are high and low. But I had a great support system with my parents and my husband, and my teammates. But not the organization too much, I just don't think I understood what I needed. There's a lot of men that I'm talking to in the organization so, I don't really think they understood. And I don't even think I knew all, what I needed, because I didn't know what I was going through, this was my first time. I think that we don't really have a system in place for post-partum depression. Mental health is sensitive, it’s private. I didn't want to tell everybody what I was going through. So, I had to leave the team so I could take care of my baby and be with my baby. It's day by day and my baby's getting big and strong.”

Athletes that are mother have a road ahead that's not easy at all to travel. They face many hurdles. Not even the biggest stars can avoid going through unfortunate situations. Diggins-Smith was even accused of abandoning her team. The point guard, like other athletic greats, takes the time to speak out on this problem: “Allyson Felix, faced problems with her sports brand because she got pregnant. And Serena, hearing her story, her birth story, just how hard she had to fight to get back, people not understanding that you can be a mom and work. Sanya Richards-Ross has a blog that she does where she writes about motherhood. Many people don’t understand that you can be a mom and work, and not ask, "Who's watching her kids? Who's watching her babies?” No, she can do both. A lot of times I bring my son to the gym and he'll watch me work out or watch me lift and he gets to see it. It's still something worth learning, I'm still a new mom. I haven't been a mom for a year yet. I'm just trying to improve and continue the conversation around what moms need.”

Another fight that Skylar stands for is gender inequality in professional sports. The difference in wages, benefits, and recognition between, for example, NBA and WNBA players is enormous. She shares her opinion: “Gender parity is something I fight for and a lot of women fight for. We're working with the Players Association. We understand the business side of things. We have to continue to find ways to generate revenue. We need more resources, get marketing, get on TV, get more money. We need more games on TV, we need more marketing dollars, we need more commercials. With that, more people will see our games and more people will come to our games. That’ll make more money, and we can get paid more money.”

Although there are a great number of changes needed to come close to reaching a balance, Skylar values the support from her NBA colleagues: “The men do a great job of supporting. The ones that don’t understand this are some young guys, but more experienced players help us. Chris Paul, the head of the Players Association, LeBron James, Damian Lillard, and Dwayne Wade a lot of them came to a lot of WNBA games this year and come to watch and come support.”

In the host city of this Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament, of the four participating teams, three are coached by men (Leonardo Costa in Argentina, José Neto in Brazil, and Luis Cuenca in Colombia) and just one is led by a woman (Cheryl Reeve in the United States). There’s a similar scenario, and maybe more uneven, in the most important women’s league in the world. “There are more women coaching in the NBA than in the WNBA. I would like to see more representation of what our lead looks like in coaching. Dawn is amazing. Having Dawn and Cheryl... I think that's a great thing for us. We love our women at USA and Dawn Staley is another one, she'll be the coach in 2020 so we're all excited to have her,” says Diggins-Smith.

A fighter who's valiant, committed, and a star. That’s Skylar Diggins-Smith, whose clear worldview and sensibility invite us to pay attention.

Pablo Cormick
FIBA