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MTV Cohutta Grindstaff and Casey Cooper
The last episode of “The Challenge: All Stars” season two saw yet another competitor having to leave the show due to pregnancy, Casey Cooper. The “Fresh Meat” star was doing well on the season with her partner Cohutta Grindstaff but a series of pregnancy tests confirmed what she suspected and she was medically disqualified.
Since Casey isn’t the first female competitor to be removed from the show due to a pregnancy or to find out after filming that they were pregnant on the show, her exit sparked anew a discussion between fans about whether the producers should be making pregnancy tests mandatory before every season.
One OG cast member and “All Stars” 2 competitor, Ayanna Mackins, said she was in support of pregnant athletes and that “forcing” pregnancy tests could be a “slippery slope.” She tweeted, “I’m team #pregnantathletes. With 4 kids, all my pregnancies required a different set of considerations. Inspired by @allysonfelix , @AlysiaMontano , and @case_coop; move how u feel u can! More listening to mommas & their voices, less judgment.”
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Casey Replied to Ayanna & the 2 Had a Discussion But She Since Deleted Her Twitter Account
Casey replied to Ayanna’s tweet and told her co-star that she would prefer to know about her pregnancy before competing. Her tweet is no longer available because her account has since been deactivated. Ayanna said:
I hear that mama, and agree. many sides of the same coin, #pregnantathletes speaks to having informed women’s health practitioners available to women who compete, women’s workplace protections, and safe spaces to weigh options to compete on a case by case w/o being penalized.
Ayanna also tweeted, “Could forcing testing could be a slippery slope and have unintended consequences? False positives are not uncommon for women with some conditions, also privacy around the results for those who may desire such things.” Casey disagreed, telling Ayanna that no one else would know the results of the test so privacy wouldn’t be an issue.
Casey also explained that discovering a pregnancy halfway through a season could have mental health effects such as anxiety and create more issues with explaining what happened to fans of the show.
Casey revealed on “MTV’s Official Challenge Podcast” that she’s since thought a lot about the challenge where they jumped from trampolines into the water and several competitors landed badly and hurt themselves. She said she’s happy she decided to quit that one before she hurt herself more, especially now knowing that she was pregnant at the time.
Casey Wasn’t the 1st Female Competitor to Compete While Pregnant, Especially in Recent Seasons
There have been female reality stars competing on “The Challenge” while pregnant every season for the last few seasons, which has led to many fans calling for pregnancy testing before the show. Bettina Buchanan revealed that she found out she was pregnant after her elimination from “Spies, Lies and Allies.” She shared that she later had an abortion.
The season before that, “Double Agents,” Natalie Anderson was medically disqualified after learning that she was pregnant early in the season. She found out after returning home that she was about eight weeks pregnant but unfortunately suffered a miscarriage a week later.
The 35th season of the show saw one competitor, Melissa Reeves, actually run the final of the challenge while pregnant. She quit halfway through the final and later said she could tell something wasn’t right. At that time, she was about four months pregnant, she revealed, and went on to give birth to a baby girl she named Vienna for the location of the final challenge.
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Source: Heavy
