Antiguan jumper Meaghan Benfeito readily admits it: it took a lot more bravery to do a three-and-a-half backflip off the 10-meter platform than it did to talk about bladder leaks.
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Benfeito, retired since 2022 and now a young mother, does not want to make incontinence her new hobby, but when we approached her as a spokesperson for a campaign promoted by TENA products, she really wanted to talk about it.
“For me it is not a problem and Arrival has more people than we thought,” he said.
The topic is still taboo in 2025. Or, many high-level athletes are affected by what is called stress urinary incontinence. This is usually because the abdominal muscle is weaker than the perineal muscle.
“When we jumped on the trampoline, when we warmed up or ran, it could work,” says the woman who worked for several years with Roseline Filion in synchronized tests. “We laughed about it.”
A normalization issue
If he was holding him down, Benfeito said strongly that some of these situations can also cause anxiety among young athletes.
“The more we talk about it, the more comfortable we make people feel,” she summarizes.
Interviewed for the first time in the framework of a report identified as athlete of the year in Quebec in 2024, trampolinist Sophiane Méthot has felt identified in the same sense.
“We leak urine frequently,” says Méthot. Of course, some of our athletes live with this, but we don’t. The goal is to try to identify as much as possible and normalize everything. We should not be ashamed of it and I think we are on the right path. “Just talking about it helps de-dramatize it.”
«To reach the whole world»
In the past, certain athletes modify or completely interrupt their sports practice due to stress urinary incontinence. In parler it allows without doute d’éviter that many situations are repeated.
“I don’t understand why they say that people are weak when they leak urine,” concludes Benfeito. The more people you talk to, the more you realize that it affects everyone. It’s everywhere, we just have to talk about it.”
Meaghan Benfeito arrived in Los Angeles in 2028
In a day of 35 years, Meaghan Benfeito did not regret having done it in 2022, but she avoue avoir souffert, the last one, as far as the Paris Olympics are concerned on television. Without foreseeing a return to competition, the young mother hoped to be in Los Angeles in 2028.
“I’ll wear a mascot costume if I have to,” he says, laughing.
More specifically, Benfeito se voit dans un rôle de mentor pour la relève. Elle continues d’ailleurs de suivre con attention les exploits des jeunes plongeurs du Canada. Chez les Québécois, elle garde notamment à l’œil Arnaud Corbeil et Samuel Talbot, parmi tant d’otres. She also applauds the bronze medal obtained by the young Claude-Olivier Lisé-Coderre in his first junior world champions, in November 2018, in Brazil. This last effect has a grimpé effect in the third gear of the podium at the height of 10 m between 14 and 15 years old.
“If they need me, I want them to know I’m here,” he says.
Proud of Caeli McKay
Regarding the Paris Games, Benfeito mentions that it is particularly fière de son ancienne partenaire en synchro Caeli McKay qui, with a score of 364.50 points, finishing in four places.
“I am very proud of Caeli, she was able to perform well. It’s very, very difficult to finish in fourth place when you nail all your dives. In my opinion, Caeli was my gold medal.”
At the Tokyo Olympics, Benfeito and McKay teamed up in 10m synchro, finishing when the fourth bell sounded. La Québec, which has three Olympic medals in the race, is now in its fourth quarter and derniers Jeux. Du moins, as an athlete.
