Eternal Wound, Performance Enhancement, or Minor Inconvenience?: Managing the Menstrual Cycle in Olympic Weightlifting

The menstrual cycle and its relationship to athletic performance has become a topic of high interest in sporting and academic circles. Novel sport-focused menstrual knowledges, practices, and technologies abound, offering coaches and athletes new narratives and at times untested strategies that promise to address athletes’ menstrual cycles and push them to higher levels of performance. In this paper, we explore sportswomen's experiences of this changing menstrual landscape by examining the pressures that they face to navigate and manage their menstrual cycles “correctly.” Drawing from Persdotter's theorization of the construction and negative effects of menstrual norms (i.e., menstrunormativity), we use qualitative methods (participant ethnography, athlete focus groups, coach interviews, and a qualitative form of strength tracking) to characterize the menstrual norms at two Olympic Weightlifting gyms in Aotearoa New Zealand. In examining the effects of these “athletic menstrunormativities” on athletes’ training practices, we identify how some athletes are positioned as “menstrual monsters” by the very norms that were intended to empower them. Ultimately, this paper raises critical questions about the application of novel menstrual knowledges, technologies, and practices to contemporary women's sport.