PARIS, Sept. 3 (Xinhua) -- Jodie Grinham's accomplishment of winning two archery medals at the Paralympic Games is remarkable on its own, but it becomes even more extraordinary considering that the Englishwoman did so while seven months pregnant.
Grinham, alongside her partner Nathan MacQueen, secured gold in the mixed compound team final just two days after earning a bronze medal in the individual event.
"All I wanted to do at the end was jump up and down and cry and scream and shout, but being heavily pregnant, realistically the best thing to do was crouch down and take a second and then I could give hugs and things," she said after her gold medal triumph.
31-year-old Grinham has a silver medal from 2016 and said she wanted to show "that nothing is impossible and to go out there and smash it."
She is already the mother of a two-year-old boy, Christian, who was born prematurely after a seven-month pregnancy (the same stage she is at now), and the para-archer said she had checked that the nearest hospital to the event (Les Invalides) was just eight minutes away in case of emergency.
She also had several check-ups in recent days to ensure everything was progressing smoothly with her current pregnancy, but even so, competing when seven months of pregnancy presented challenges - not least with concentration due to a special challenge of her condition.
"The baby hasn't stopped moving; the baby is saying: what are you doing?"
"It was really starting to worry me that the baby was going to move when I was at full draw and it was going to affect my shot, but my coach and I spent a long time doing little pregnancy prep with her moving me and the bump so I could get used to that feeling," she said after winning her individual medal, adding she had developed her competition process.
"Even during matches today up at full draw I acknowledged it, mummy loves you, I'll cuddle you in a minute, then carried on doing my processes. Then I gave him a little stroke afterward and said it's all fine, I know it's a lot of noise, a lot of heartbeat," she said.
"It's been a real honor to know that the baby is there and that little support bubble I've got in my belly," commented Grinham, who urged others to follow her example.
"If you feel you can do it...If the doctor says it's fine, then go and do it," she concluded. ■
