He competed with the ‘risk‘ to give birth during the test, but in the end she put a medal around her neck bronze “that we won in two”. Paris Paralympics it’s the day ofarcher British Jodie Grinham who at the end of a very intense day beat her compatriot 142-141 Phoebe Paterson Pine in the final for third and fourth place of the Compound Open Women. She did it even though she could have given birth to the child she was expecting at any moment, being 28 weeks pregnant and having already had, two years ago, a child born 7 months prematurely. result that she got makes her happy and is in line with her ambitionsgiven that Jodie before Paris was at no. 4 of the international ranking of his race.
But now, as he climbs onto the podium Paralympichas to deal with that baby which, as the doctors confirmed, could be born in the next 24 hours. But that’s okay, because this is the ‘result‘ that interests her most. For this reason Jodie and who follows her these days Paris I am in constant contact with a couple of Parisian clinics for possible hospitalization in case of water breaking, in the meantime theBritish Archer he certainly hasn’t neglected his competitive career. «One of my goals it has always been – he explained Grinhamathlete Paralympic due to a congenital malformation which in his case is the excessive shortness of all the fingers of the left hand – that of reconciling the role of mother with that of athlete. To have a family It’s not as easy as many people think, I’ve had three miscarriages in the past, and the worst thing I could imagine was competing here in the first three months of pregnancy. The fear of another miscarriage would definitely have affected me.
Instead now that I am 7 months pregnant the only thing that can happen to me is to give birth here. Of course I would have preferred to get pregnant at another time, but it was not possible to separate the pregnancy from Paralympicsand I was lucky. So now to take this medal there were two of us. I’m super happy.”
Among the adaptations made by Jodie for the Paralympicsone was the one relating to theequipment which he uses for shooting with thebow. The British has in fact changed the belt used to store arrows. Previously positioned at belly height, it has been widened and is now tied lower. Jodie it was then always monitored during thetraining and in the race, through a device that measures its heartbeat and prevents mother and child from getting too stressed during activities. But it was also necessary to change the routine: during his career as athlete, Jodie she has become accustomed to spending up to 12 hours a day on her feet, due to training and competitions. This effort, however, becomes more difficult with the pregnancy.
«I had to reduce certain efforts a lot. If I want to do the 12 hours as in preparation for Rio 2016 (where he won silver in the Mixed Team, ed.) and for the World Cupthen I need a two-hour nap – the words of Grinham. All this fitted in well with the calendar of Pariswhich included an intermediate session, one after lunch and one at sunset. My body was prepared.”
«But the most important thing would be to return home with a baby in my arms – he concludes – because this is the most beautiful conquest of life, more than a medal».