Fu Yuanhui has quickly become one of our favorite athletes to watch in this summer’s Olympic games. Between her signature goofy faces and all-around awesome attitude, we didn’t think there was anything else the 20-year-old swimmer could do to make us admire her more.
Until this past Saturday.
After competing in the 4x100-meter relay, the Chinese swimmer and her team were interviewed by a CCTV reporter. As the reporter went to interview Fu, the camera panned down to show the 20-year-old squatting on the ground.
According to Shanghaiist, when the interviewer saw Fu in pain she asked the swimmer: “Your stomach must hurt a lot right now?”
“My period came last night and I’m really tired right now,” Fu responded. “But this isn’t an excuse, I still did not swim as well as I should have.”
Fu’s honesty is absolutely refreshing in a sports culture that still sees women’s periods as a taboo subject.
Although these Olympic athletes are basically super human, they don’t get to plan their menstrual cycles around their competition dates ― they power through it because, well, they’re super humans.
Thanks for being honest, Yuanhui.
Head here to watch the full interview.
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