Sheryl Swoopes And ‘Gamechangers: Mother/Athlete’ Director Christine Turner On The Untold Realities Of Motherhood In The WNBA

Aug 10, 2026 08:09 PM - 2 hours ago 3

Women's Sports Foundation's Annual Salute To Women In Sports

This year, the WNBA is celebrating its 30th anniversary, marking 3 decades since the convention was founded successful 1996. But it was 1997, erstwhile the inaugural play tipped off, that the convention began to return style connected the tribunal and three-time WNBA MVP and Olympic golden medalist Sheryl Swoopes was astatine the halfway of that history, marking a transformative alteration for women successful sports.

Swoopes made history arsenic the first subordinate to motion a WNBA contract, the first female jock to person a Nike signature footwear pinch the Air Swoopes, and the first WNBA subordinate to grounds a regular-season triple-double.

Swoopes now finds herself astatine different career-defining infinitesimal arsenic 1 of the cardinal figures successful the Roku Original documentary Gamechangers: Mother/Athlete, which explores the behind-the-scenes realities of the WNBA and the equilibrium betwixt hoops greatness and motherhood. The documentary, which premieres connected Roku this fall, screened astatine the Martha’s Vineyard African-American Film Festival connected August 9. In the anthology, Swoopes, Skylar Diggins-Smith, Bria Hartley, Natalie Achonwa and Allison Feaster stock really they embraced motherhood while competing astatine the highest level of master basketball.

Swoopes wasn’t unfastened astir her gestation initially while helping motorboat the WNBA; astir 30 years later, she is publically confronting that acquisition successful a documentary astir really motherhood has changed master basketball.

Within the documentary, the stories uncover the unseen realities of gestation and motherhood successful master basketball—from the stigma and unit surrounding gestation to the beingness and affectional challenges of returning to the court, navigating postpartum depression, and caring for children connected the roadworthy aliases leaving them behind. The movie besides highlights really dramatically the WNBA’s attack to motherhood has evolved, peculiarly pursuing the landmark 2020 corporate bargaining agreement, which expanded maternity and family-planning benefits for players.

Swoopes was immensely susceptible successful the documentary, arsenic she felt transported backmost to 1997 erstwhile she was pregnant pinch her boy up of the inaugural season, wherever she faced media scrutiny and backlash for being pregnant and past deciding to return to play for the play aft giving birth. “Thank goodness I person heavy skin, and I cognize who I americium because proceeding a batch of the media commentary could person pushed maine to the constituent wherever I could say, ‘Screw it! I’m not moreover going to effort to travel back.’ I wanted the abstraction to really bask the pregnancy, for illustration different moms, but to beryllium successful a profession successful a abstraction astatine the clip wherever it was almost like, let's support this hidden and quiet because I cognize what the media is going to say. I cognize what the fans are going to say, and I don't want to person to woody pinch that,” she told maine during our question and reply astatine a swanky edifice connected Martha’s Vineyard.

Swoopes credits getting done that difficult clip to the support of her adjacent organization and family, including her first hubby astatine the clip and mother, but often laments the sacrifices she had to make arsenic a full-time hoops subordinate astatine the apical of her game, who though had respective high-paying endorsements did request to play overseas, arsenic galore WNBA players do fixed the salary inequities of the convention compared to the NBA.

“There was a twelvemonth wherever I was like, ‘Okay, I request to spell make immoderate much money, and I request to spell overseas,’ truthful I went to Italy, but I didn’t return my boy pinch me; he stayed backmost location pinch a really bully friend of mine. He was younger, but he was successful school, and it was 1 of the hardest decisions that I ever made: having to spell beryllium distant from my boy for six months,” she said candidly. “I don’t cognize if group understand the sacrifice that we had to make.”

Sacrifice has been a throughline successful Gamechangers: Mother/Athlete, describing the players’ acquisition pinch making decisions arsenic women athletes erstwhile their identities arsenic mothers collide pinch the demands of elite competition.

Unfortunately, stories astir motherhood and master women athletes person been missing from the sports speech for truthful long, but this documentary intends to show the afloat picture. “It’s not a speech happening successful men’s sports, and that's wherever you cognize group focused overmuch of their attention. I deliberation it's a uniquely women's issue. I don't moreover cognize if rumor is the correct word; it sounds funny to opportunity issue. It's conscionable portion of their lives. I deliberation it's important to item these things and to radiance a ray connected them. There are immoderate very cosmopolitan struggles successful their stories that I deliberation a batch of women tin subordinate to arsenic well, and yet they're wholly unique. I mean, their occupation arsenic a master and an elite hoops subordinate is already truthful challenging, and location are already truthful galore sacrifices and things that person to beryllium made successful bid to play, and truthful galore beautiful things, of course, that travel pinch that position and domiciled successful place,” Christine Turner, the head of the documentary and mother to 2 children, said to me.

“I deliberation also, conscionable because the fame of the WNBA has really exploded, you can’t thief but wonderment what the realities of this are and what it takes and requires. There’s the emotional, the physical, the intelligence realities of navigating each of it.”

She continued, I consciousness an responsibility aliases work to show stories of women and group of colour successful particular, but pinch complexity and nuance, and to spot them successful their afloat humanity and arsenic unsocial individuals pinch their ain personalities.”

Swoopes said Turner created an situation wherever she could revisit achy experiences without emotion judged.

“What I loved astir it was I felt for illustration we had known each different for a while, conscionable giving maine the abstraction to beryllium susceptible and to not judge, but a spot wherever I could really show my communicative because location was truthful overmuch worldly that I kept hidden and I kept inside,” Swoopes said. “And you deliberation that you're complete definite things, and past she recovered a measurement to bring those things out, but not successful a bad way, but successful a measurement wherever I was like, ‘Damn, I thought I was complete this.’”

For Swoopes, the process became unexpectedly therapeutic. Revisiting what she knowledgeable arsenic 1 of the WNBA’s pioneers besides allowed her to admit really overmuch the convention has changed for the women who came aft her.

“To beryllium and talk astir it, and to not beryllium judged, but to besides talk to personification who astir apt can't relate, you know, conscionable being successful her occupation and successful this field. So for me, it was very therapeutic,” she said. “As overmuch arsenic I don't want to outcry astir it, I deliberation I get affectional astir it because I deliberation it's specified a powerful communicative that group request to hear. But I besides outcry for illustration happy tears because of what I went done and wherever we are today.”

She continued, “The women successful the WNBA don't person to woody pinch the worldly that I personally had to woody pinch erstwhile we first started. So I'm grateful that I sewage to activity pinch her and that she gave maine this space.”

That abstraction besides allowed Swoopes to articulate what she hopes women—and the group astir them—take distant from Gamechangers: Mother/Athlete. For her, the speech extends acold beyond master basketball.

“Regardless of what your occupation is, what your profession is, arsenic a woman, if you're a female and want to commencement a family, you should beryllium capable to do that and not beryllium judged for it, and not consciousness like, ‘Oh my God, what are group going to think? What are group going to say? Am I going to suffer my job?’ And those are things that we deliberation about,” Swoopes said.

When Swoopes discovered she was pregnant successful the months starring up to the WNBA’s inaugural season, those fears were immediate. After taking 5 gestation tests, she still kept the news to herself, moreover withholding it from her supplier for a time.

“I didn't tell. I didn't moreover show my supplier for a while, because I'd conscionable signed a contract, the WNBA was astir to start, and I had each this unit connected maine to build this league,” she said. “And erstwhile I recovered I was pregnant, my first thought was, ‘What's the convention going to say? What's Nike going to say?’”

Nearly 3 decades later, Swoopes wants women to cognize that motherhood does not person to travel astatine the disbursal of their ambitions—or their humanity.

“I only bring each that up to opportunity we are human. We're women. We're very vulnerable. I'm conscionable for illustration you. Give maine the grace to beryllium a female and not conscionable an athlete,” she said. “And I do deliberation I'm hoping successful this documentary that people, women successful particular, who whitethorn moreover beryllium struggling pinch that themselves, for illustration a profession and motherhood, tin spot it's not going to beryllium easy, but we did it, and you tin do it too. I deliberation much stories for illustration this request to beryllium told because it's existent life.”

But Swoopes besides believes the speech cannot beryllium confined to women. Men, she argues, request to understand the realities women look erstwhile they take motherhood while pursuing demanding careers.

“I deliberation women request to spot and perceive these stories, but you cognize what? I besides deliberation men request to perceive these stories,” she said. “Because who are you arsenic a man to show maine what a man can’t do aft I springiness birth?”