Photos: Simona Halep, above, this year after breast-reduction surgery and, below, last year before the surgery. (Getty Images photos)
Slide show: “Female athletes vs. big breasts” (including photos of tennis stars Simona Halep, Venus Williams and Serena Williams, track star Jana Rawlinson, amateur boxer Sarah Blewden, golfer Natalie Gulbis and figure skater Anna Semenovich)
VICTORY OR BUST
Breasts can pose a challenge for top-caliber female athletes.
For some women, the path to athletic excellence seems to be blocked by overly large breasts, so they do something about it. Two female champions abroad recently had their breast size reduced in pursuit of further athletic excellence.
Plastic surgeon Dr. Ed Domanskis of Newport Beach said, “Breast implants and larger breasts would be a negative in sports such as golf, tennis and track — in fact, in probably almost any sport except maybe boxing where they would ‘soften’ the blows.”
International stars in tennis and track have heeded such advice, but a British boxer is frustrated because the Amateur Boxing Association has a much different position from Domanskis.
Tennis star Simona Halep of Romania, the winner of the 2008 Junior French Open, had a breast reduction operation last year to improve her play.
Jana Rawlinson of Australia, who won the world championship in 400-meter hurdles in 2003 and in 2007, announced in January that she had her breast implants removed to improve her chances at the 2012 Olympics.
British model Sarah Blewden was banned from amateur boxing last year because of breast implants. The head of the country’s Amateur Boxing Association said she could not box with implants.
“There is no question that big breasts get in the way and many women get reductions for this reason,” said plastic surgeon Dr. Val Lambros of Newport Beach. “The Amazons, as reported by the ancient Greeks, had breast amputations so they could shoot their bows better.”
“If you are an Olympic-class swimmer, bigger breasts slow you down a little hydrodynamically. If you are not world class, no big deal,” he said.
Lambros is unconvinced that Rawlinson will benefit from removing her implants.
“I don’t think that a runner with small implants would be affected one way or the other,” he said.
BOXING
Sarah Blewden (Photo courtesy of Daily Mail)
Neither Lambros nor Domanskis supports the boxing ban.
“I have no idea why the boxer was banned. Breast implants get more of a beating in daily life than in the ring,” Lambros said.
Tony Attwood, chairman of the Amateur Boxing Association in the United Kingdom, said his decision to bar Blewden from ABA-sponsored boxing matches, which she had hoped would eventually lead her to the Olympics, was based on international amateur boxing regulations.
“International rules forbid anyone with breast implants continuing to box because of risk of damage to the breast tissue,” he said.
Blewden objected.
“My surgeon said they make me no more vulnerable than any other woman,” she said. “They are not enormous ones. They are in proportion. They are gel implants and not liquid so they won’t burst.”
TENNIS
On the tennis court, Halep had attracted an enthusiastic following of young men because of her large breasts. But last year, at age 17, she announced that she would get them surgically reduced in order to improve her game.
“The breasts make me uncomfortable when I play. It’s the weight that troubles me – my ability to react quickly,” she said. Her cup size was reportedly 34DD.
Since her operation, Halep has had mixed results in tournament play. In May, she reached the finals of a tennis tournament in Morocco. She was eliminated early in the French Open in May and last month at Wimbledon.
But she didn’t have the operation just for professional reasons.
“I don’t like them in my everyday life either. I would have gone for surgery too, even if I hadn’t been a sportswoman,” she said before the operation.
A supporter of Halep wrote online that her critics “have never dealt with the back pain, chest pain, and difficulty running that comes along with such a large chest” and added, “Sometimes women do aim a bit higher than sex object, as crazy as it seems.”
TRACK
Jana Rawlinson before having her implants removed. (Photo courtesy of Daily Telegraph)
Australian track star Rawlinson described herself as “flat as a pancake” before she got breast implants. She acknowledged getting the implants in May 2009, after a divorce. Rawlinson said she got the implants “to feel more like a woman.”
In January, she announced that she’d had them removed to improve her athletic performance.
“I can always get my breasts enhanced again when I finish my career. I know there are no medals for being beautiful,” she said.
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