While this is normally a gymnastics website, every once in a while I opt to highlight a non-gymnastics story that I feel is too important not to talk about. This particular case was too infuriating, tragic, heartbreaking and ultimately too important not to share.

In 2022 Serena Williams published an essay describing her near death experience during the birth of her first child. Serena described what it was like to be scared for your life, to have fears you were going to die, and how it defined her entire outlook on life. But Serena Williams didn’t simply want to tell the story of how she experienced a horrifying ordeal, but to highlight an issue that disproportionately affects black women.

Black women are 3x more likely to die in child birth than their white counterparts. The only way such a statistic is possible is structural racism within the medical system. It is the byproduct where this demographic is more likely to have their concerns or objections dismissed, subjected to lower standards of care, and are less likely to have pre-existing medical conditions identified.

That was the statistic Serena wanted to emphasize.

Serena Williams is one of the most powerful individuals in sports. Her wealth is measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars. She isn’t famous to Americans, her fame is on a worldwide scale. As for Williams’ success as a tennis player, she’s the one athlete gymnastics fans rarely object to when people place her ahead of Simone Biles in the rankings of all-time greatest figures in women’s sports.

But when Serena gave birth, she inquired about being placed on a heparin drip and blood-thinners to account for a pre-existing medical condition. Williams said “no one was really listening to what I was saying.” As Serena’s condition worsened, she insisted on a CAT scan only to be told by her nurse “I think all this medicine is making you talk crazy.”

Williams had to continue insisting that something was wrong and additional treatment was needed. It wasn’t until Serena had convinced the nurse to call her personal doctor that hospital officials relented and gave Williams the specific medical treatment she had been asking for. Serena would go through four surgeries in a single week of childbirth. But in the end both the mother and baby would leave the hospital in good health.

Williams represents the highest level of power and influence. If such an experience could happen to someone as well-positioned as her, one can only imagine how much worse this issue must be for the average black woman who doesn’t have anywhere near the resources as the iconic tennis player. That’s what made this story so significant when Williams revealed it back in 2022. If this could happen to Serena Williams, no black woman in America was safe.

Serena Williams’ essay wasn’t just a story, it was a warning.

Seven weeks ago, Tori Bowie passed away. She was a highly versatile athlete who put the “and” in Track & Field. Tori was famed for having success in both the track events and the field events. At the World Championships she has a gold medal in the 100 meters, as well as a 4th place finish in the Long Jump. Like Serena Williams, Tori Bowie represented Team USA at the 2016 Olympics. In her lone Olympic appearance Tori won three Olympic medals at Rio-2016. She won a gold, silver, and bronze.

Speculation ran wild when it was first announced that Tori Bowie had died so unexpectedly and at such a young age. But this week an autopsy report finally provided the public with an answer. Tori died of complications from childbirth with the report also highlighting a condition known as Eclampsia. It is associated with pregnant women, but its morality rate varies based on wealth inequality and how early it can be diagnosed. In other words, the mortality rate of Eclampsia and pre-eclampsia goes down if medical doctors discover it earlier, while poorer communities are more likely to die from it than a patient of a wealthier background.

Somewhere along the way the American medical system failed Tori Bowie. This was something that had it been identified sooner, most likely would have saved Bowie. You can’t look at one specific case and know for sure whether racial disparities in medical treatment are what ultimately led to her death. But it is hard to see this case and not think about the likelihood that it may very well have been. Or that Tori Bowie became one more example in an undeniable trend that black women die at much higher rates in childbirth than white women.

But Serena Williams wasn’t the only athlete to raise awareness about the risks black pregnant women face in childbirth. Nor was Tori Bowie the only 2016 Olympian with pre-eclampsia. In 2022 Allyson Felix shared her experiences of giving birth while having pre-eclampsia and the elevated risks associated with it.

In Allyson Felix’s case, doctors had discovered and diagnosed her with severe pre-eclampsia and responded quickly by preforming an emergency C-section when she was eight months pregnant. Felix was not only fortunate enough to live through her ordeal, but was blessed with physicians and a hospital whom she trusted. The medical care Felix was afforded allowed her to give birth without living through the hellish experience that Serena Williams endured.

But it was still enough for Felix to realize that while she was fortunate, many others weren’t. In 2022 Felix specifically cited the higher than normal mortality rates black women face in child birth as a reason for her advocacy on behalf of issues impacting mothers. Like Serena Williams, Allyson Felix was raising alarm bells the year prior of a crisis facing black pregnant women. But unlike Serena, for Allyson the death of Tori Bowie hit far closer to home.

Allyson Felix and Tori Bowie were more than just 2016 Olympians, they competed as teammates in the very same event and won a gold medal together in the 4×100 relay. They shared a medal podium together. In the end they were afflicted by the exact same condition but with tragically different outcomes. Felix had a planned birth at a hospital while in the care of the best doctors while being surrounded by her friends and family. Tori Bowie gave birth unexpectedly. She died alone in her house and it took days for her body to be discovered.

Allyson Felix and Serena Williams warned us about this dangerous trend. Highlighting that it could have been the legendary tennis player with 23 Grand Slams to her name, or the legendary Olympian with 11 medals and five Olympic appearances. It took only one year for their warning to come true, that there would indeed be a highly successful athlete to die from this trend. In the end Serena and Allyson didn’t so much as warn us, but made a prophecy that ultimately came true.

When you spend enough time watching sports, sooner or later you will notice trends that have little to do with sports. The United States has by far, the highest maternal mortality rate amongst developed nations and black women bear the brunt of it.

It has become impossible to ignore the sheer volume of cases where a high profile, black woman in sports has a story of a terrifying experience during child birth. It is a trend that much of America knows full well, but never rises to the level to be bothered enough by these stories to actually do something about it.

Cases like Tori Bowie lead to nothing more than a temporary pause where we briefly acknowledge the crisis, then go back to ignoring it.

English Gardner
Allyson Felix
Tianna Madison
Tori Bowie

The American team that won gold at the 2016 Olympics in the 4 x 100 women’s relay is legendary. The four-person lineup accounts for 19 career Olympic medals. All four members of the team were black and 3 of 4 have suffered either a death or near-death experience during child birth.

You read that right.

If Serena Williams, Allyson Felix, and Tori Bowie weren’t enough, there is a 4th member of Team USA’s 2016 Olympic lineup who has also been affected by this trend. Tianna Madison (who competed under the last name “Bartoletta” in Rio) also experienced a complicated pregnancy. Tianna labeled her and Felix’s experience as “near death” and Allyson Felix agreed with that description. When reacting to the death of Tori, the connection to what pregnant black mothers face was not lost on either of them.

Allyson and Tianna endured this trend and then watched it turn their teammate into a statistic.