Maica García had spent 32 years at the same club. 🏊♀️
At 35, the most decorated Spanish water polo player of her generation—Olympic gold in Paris 2024, silver in London 2012 and Tokyo 2020, seven Champions Leagues with Sabadell—was planning to return to competition after almost two seasons away due to motherhood. She had a contract. She had plans through Los Angeles 2028.
But she found out that she no longer belonged to the club in a way no one would expect: through a notification from Social Security informing her that she had been removed. The club says the decision was purely technical and sporting.
She tells it differently: “I never imagined that having a daughter could mark the end of my sporting career at Sabadell in this way”.
Her case once again raises a question that women’s sport still has not answered: why can being a mother still cost you your career?
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