Olympic Swimmer’s Candid Period Comment Is Wonderfully Relatable

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.

For more Olympics coverage:

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• 50 Photos That Show The Raw Power Of This Year’s Olympic Women
• Haters, Leave Olympic Champion Gabby Douglas The F Alone
• The Body-Positive Message Behind This Shot Putter’s Olympic Gold Medal
• Stop Attributing The Success Of Women Olympians To Men