Sheffield's Jessica Ennis-Hill welcomes move to make Olympics more family friendly for athletes

It has taken more than a century, but Olympic Games organisers are finally catering for the needs of athletes who are also mums and dads.

And Sheffield's Jessica Ennis-Hill is delighted that parents participating in the world's greatest sporting event are now being encouraged to spend time with their sons and daughters.

This week, and for the first time in Olympic and Paralympic history, competitors preparing for the Paris 2024 Summer Games (26 July to 11 August) were told that their accommodation village will include a nursery.

It will have "complimentary nappies" and a space for “playtime and family bonding”.

For generations, athletes were hardly able to see their loved ones during Games.

Now, along with the nursery, global consumer goods company P&G plans to launch several Olympic-themed initiatives.

These include complimentary sanitary wear Always and Tampax, in the restrooms across the Athletes’ Village.

The campaign is aimed at "addressing and eliminating period anxiety in the sporting world."

There was nowhere near as much support for athletes when Jess was a heptathlete.

Yet she gave birth to her son Reggie in July 2014 and still won silver in the August 2016 finals.

Now a mother of two, she has long been a supporter for the rights of mums and women in general in sport.

‘I went through my own journey’

The two-time Olympian believes the addition of a nursery will help spark important conversations around being an athlete and starting a family.

“I kind of went through my own journey having my son within sport,” she told Olympics.com.

“Learning about me as an athlete but also myself as a woman and how your body changes so much,” said the 38-year-old.

“I think that is something that is not spoken about enough - how do our bodies change as women in sports? What differences do we have? How could we put more research into understanding?

“We are slowly talking more and more about it, there are more athletes coming out and speaking openly about it but I think it is a conversation that is really important and we should feel comfortable having it.”

The former King Ecgbert School pupil retired from sport in October 2016.

Dame Jessica will be at the Team GB’s home-from-home at the Paris Games.

IOC Athletes’ Commission Chair Emma Terho said that the move came because of the recognition that ‘many athletes are balancing their sporting careers and family’.

“I know how this feels as I competed at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games as a mother with a young child,” she added.

“Pregnancy and motherhood don’t have to mean a career end for female athletes.

“It is very helpful for both parents and infants to be able to spend time together, especially at such an important moment in an athlete’s sporting life. This nursery allows that to happen, while also giving athletes the opportunity to focus on the Games.”