Director: Adán Bonet
Returning to work after having a baby is hard enough for Olympic athletes but to do it in the middle of a pandemic adds an extra level struggle for artistic swimming captain Ona Cabonell whose new documentary Starting Over captures the year-long process of returning to elite competitive sport. Part against-the-odds sports movie, part campaign film for nursing mothers in sport, Adán Bonet’s documentary charts the highs and lows of being a working mother.
When the 2020 Tokyo Olympics were delayed by a year, Cabonell grasps her chance to get back into shape and re-join the Spanish synchronised swimming team for what is likely to be her third and final Olympics. With less than a year to regain her fitness and win back her place, Cabonell decides to balance caring for her 6-week old baby with return to her international status.
Largely told from Cabonell’s perspective through interviews to camera, fly-on-the-wall videos taken on her phone and footage of training sessions, Starting Over is honest about the requirements of competing at the highest level and the sacrifices needed at home to support her career. Inevitably, there are plenty of tears – and not only from baby Kai – as the exhausted Cabonell is shown pumping beside the swimming pool and dealing with the reality of her continued physical and emotional exhaustion.
That struggle only becomes harder as Bonet’s film charts the rising stakes, when world championships, Olympic qualifiers and the reality of going to Tokyo for 20 days take their toll, Bonet’s ticking clock as the final goal draws near, counting down the days, adds to the tension while both pandemic restrictions and the Japanese government’s refusal to permit baby Kai to accompany his mother to the competition take the athlete closer to breaking point.
What Starting Over is missing is interviews and perspectives from around Cabonell, that could reinforce her points about the prejudice she faces and the lack of support from the sport’s governing bodies. What was it like for the rest of her team and her clearly supportive trainer welcoming back their Captain and trying to balance her changed needs with the demand of competing at the highest level? And for Cabonell’s husband who takes over much of the childcare often standing in the background of shots, what does it mean to be the partner of a focuses sportsperson and what sacrifices he has made to support her career and their family
The final days at the Tokyo Olympics are rather glossed over despite so much build up and the film never reflects on the aftermath, having given up so much for the eventual result, and instead reroutes from its return to competition narrative to a campaign for better support for mothers. None of that takes away from Cabonell’s achievement during the year or the effort and willpower it took to be a mum to Kait at the same time
Ona Carbonell: Starting Over will streaming exclusively for free on Rakuten TV from 2nd March.
