Jodie Grinham will compete as an archer for Great Britain in this month’s Paralympic Games in Paris while seven months pregnant.
“My team have joked a few times that my waters could just break on the podium,” Grinham told The Athletic. “That would be quite something.”
Before this pregnancy, Grinham had three miscarriages, but she knew she wanted to extend her family and give a sibling to her son Christian, whom she delivered prematurely at 28 weeks. She also didn’t want the Paralympics to stop her from getting pregnant.
“We decided we weren’t going to let a Games stop us from extending our family,” Grinham told The Athletic. “We didn’t know if we were even going to be able to conceive another one. This might not ever happen for us. Getting pregnant is not as easy as people believe. It’s not that simple.”
Alex Davidson via Getty Images
While pregnant with Christian, Grinham was on bed rest starting when she was 16 weeks pregnant. When he was born prematurely, Christian was in an incubator with “severe jaundice.”
“I didn’t really get to hold him for the first 10 days, he was under a little light in this little box, which was heartbreaking,” Grinham said.
Grinham has brachysyndactyly and told The Athletic that she has “no fingers and half a thumb.”
“My arms are different lengths, my shoulder is undeveloped through my left side that goes through to my left core and left hip,” she added. Previously, at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, she won silver with John Stubbs in the mixed team compound for athletes with “lower levels of impairment in the upper or lower limbs,” according to the British Paralympic Association.
The doctors aren’t sure whether Grinham’s left side can hold the weight of the baby and worry she could go into labor prematurely. Grinham said she doesn’t know how long this pregnancy will be.
“I was aware I might not even get to these Games if I had the same problems as my last pregnancy,” she said. “I’ve decided I want a family and a career, I want to be able to do both.”
Grinham, who is 31 years old, told the IAmPossible foundation earlier this week that she started archery when she was about 14. When she was told she wouldn’t be able to do it because of her disability, she and her dad and a coach started training. She experimented with duct tape and foam to build something so she could hold the bow before finding a manufacturer that made a bow with a grip that fits into her hand.
Last month, Egyptian fencer Nada Hafez competed in the Paris Olympics while seven months pregnant. After reaching the round of 16, Hafez wrote on Instagram that she and her baby had their “fair share of challenges.”
“The rollercoaster of pregnancy is tough on its own, but having to fight to keep the balance of life & sports was nothing short of strenuous, however worth it,” she wrote. “I’m writing this post to say that pride fills my being for securing my place in the round of 16!”
Hafez finished the Olympics ranked as No. 16, her best out of her three Olympic appearances.
