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“My team have joked a few times that my waters could just break on the podium,” says archer Jodie Grinham, who will compete for Britain at this month’s Paralympic Games. “That would be quite something.”
Grinham, speaking to The Athletic via video call from her training camp in St-Germain-en-Laye, west of Paris, will be seven months pregnant when she shoots her first arrow in the compound archery competition at Les Invalides on Thursday. She believes she will be the first Paralympian to compete at such a late stage of pregnancy.
“I will have achieved something that no one else can say they’ve done,” says Grinham. “I (will have) been to a Paralympics at seven months pregnant and got to compete.
“(But) I’m not doing any of it for a statement, I’m doing it for me. If that is enough for people to say, ‘Why can’t we?’, then fantastic.”
Already a mum to Christian, born in October 2022, Grinham has juggled looking after her toddler and training at home, as well as managing the side effects of pregnancy. The 31-year-old has adapted her training and technique in a bid to return to the podium having won a silver medal alongside John Stubbs at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in the mixed team compound, a category for athletes with “lower levels of impairment in the upper or lower limbs”, according to the British Paralympic Association.
Grinham has “no fingers and half a thumb” and explains “my arms are different lengths, my shoulder is undeveloped through my left side that goes through to my left core and left hip” owing to a congenital condition, brachysyndactyly. She and her partner, Christopher, have also suffered three miscarriages, and she knows all too well the precarious and precious nature of pregnancy.
“We decided we weren’t going to let a Games stop us from extending our family,” Grinham says. “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.”
When she was 28 weeks pregnant with her son Christian, Grinham went into premature labour.
“I was really ill throughout my pregnancy and deteriorated,” she says. “I was on bed rest by the time I was 16 weeks pregnant. After Christian was born, he ended up in an incubator, severe jaundice, almost needing a blood transfusion. 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.”
This time, doctors were uncertain if Grinham’s left side would be able to hold the weight of her baby and believed part of the problem of carrying to full-term pregnancy was because of her left side’s propensity to collapse. “We’re in the same position this time,” she says. “We don’t know.”
It is a very real possibility the archer could go into labour in Paris, so Grinham and her team have researched the nearest maternity wards and hospitals, what happens if the baby is born in France and logistics around birth certificates.
“We’ve got every backup plan you could imagine,” she says, even musing on the possibility of having the baby and returning to compete in the Paralympics in the individual event. “We’ll see,” she smiles.
Grinham’s outlook, though, is as bright as her pink hair.
Grinham talks to The Athletic’s Charlotte Harpur
“After we sadly lost our last one around the beginning of the year, my partner said, ‘You’ve always wanted to do it, just do it’,” she says of her fuchsia locks.
“I was aware I might not even get to these Games if I had the same problems as my last pregnancy. I’ve decided I want a family and a career, I want to be able to do both.
“If medically that doesn’t happen, then it doesn’t happen. I have the luxury of going for Los Angeles (Olympics in 2028) and Brisbane (2032). I might never get the chance to have a baby again. I’m not going to regret a single kick or a single bad arrow. I am going to be here and be the happy athlete mum that I know I deserve to be.”
More on the sporting summer in Paris…
“I’m a lot more front-heavy with the baby so my balance is a little off with the swaying,” says Grinham, who has needed to change her shooting technique. “It’s been the weirdest training I’ve ever done in my life. But it’s been fun.”
Adjustments have also been made to her bow’s stabilisers (weights on the bow to make it steadier) to help the Paralympian feel strong and grounded through her feet. She is grateful for the “out-of-the-box thinking” from coach Charlotte Burgess, a mother and former Olympic archer, the British Paralympic Association and Archery GB for their support.
Grinham has to wear larger clothing to cover her bump but that leaves excess material near her shoulders that could catch in the string. She now tucks a guard under her armpit to gather any loose fabric. She has shifted the belt for her quiver (the container carrying the arrows) to a lower position, which impacts how she lifts and holds the bow on her side, and used video analysis to check nothing is impeding her shot.
Grinham and John Stubbs compete in Rio (Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images)
However, as her pregnancy progresses, her training is an ever-changing situation. Last week, Grinham noticed the baby’s position moving lower into the pelvis, causing discomfort because the quiver is also pulling. Lying on her back on the physio bed, Grinham can tilt her pelvis to gently encourage the baby to move so it is not as low — but she cannot do this during competition.
“If it works, great. If it doesn’t, I just get on with it,” she says matter-of-factly.
Grinham and Burgess have also devised “pregnancy prep sessions”. For example, during training when Grinham is in the full draw position (ready to shoot), her coach stimulates a slight movement to act like a baby’s kick or tickles her side to simulate a flutter sensation.
But as Grinham eyes up the 80-centimetre target from 50 metres away, under the most intense pressure, with one pivotal shot that could be the difference between medalling or not, her baby could decide to get involved.
“I’ve felt a really good kick just before I’m about to shoot and I just think: ‘It’s all right, Mummy knows you’re there’,” she says. “I’m not annoyed or upset. They don’t know what’s going on.
“I’ve made this decision. If I go to the Games and I’m in the gold final and the baby kicks me and I lose gold, then what? What did I expect? I knew the risks.”
Grinham is not experiencing the “horrendous“ cravings she had when pregnant with her son but her sense of smell is heightened. Even the faintest whiff makes her queasy. Her body is also craving snacks little and often as opposed to three meals a day, she will have to work harder to manage heat and hydration and, with the pressure of the baby on her bladder, trips to the toilet are more frequent.
Grinham’s midwife and consultant team have advised her from a maternity perspective and her sport medical team from an athlete perspective but, as in many sports, there are no athlete pregnancy specialists. She recalls how doctors advised her not to train when she was carrying Christian but recommended her sport medical team would know better. Her sport team, however, were concerned about pushing her if the doctor was advising her against training. It was very difficult for Grinham to make the right decision.
“It would always be good to have a specialist that knows both,” she says. “But (up until now) we’ve never needed them. It’s only very recently athletes are starting to be accepted as being pregnant or mothers as well. I’m hoping more pregnant women will see they can carry on training and compete.”
Grinham’s partner Christopher — in her words “the most understanding man in the whole wide world” — and her son Christian will not be in Paris but watching from home, a decision made just a couple of weeks ago. Although they did test runs with Christian watching his mother compete at winter domestic competitions, it has become tougher as the toddler expresses himself more.
“He doesn’t really understand that if he sees Mummy he can’t have Mummy,” Grinham says. “He gets really upset. You can’t explain to a one-year-old you can’t see Mummy because she’s working. I can’t just be in the middle of shooting and comfort him.
“It is difficult. I’m programmed to listen to a baby cry. I have my athlete hat on but I am also a mother. It’s very hard to keep my mind from that. At the moment, it’s just easier to be here in athlete mode.”
Knowing that Christian is settled at home and she can video call her family whenever she needs, Grinham is fully focused on the job at hand.
“I believe I can medal, pregnancy aside,” she says. “I’m shooting the best I’ve ever shot. I feel more experienced than I’ve ever been. I want to medal.
“If I were to compete, then come November give birth to a happy, healthy baby, that would be enough success. I will have achieved what I wanted from this Games and the pregnancy. I’m here, I get to have fun and I get a prize at the end of it, whether it’s a medal — but I get a baby, and that’s what I want.”
(Top photo: Grinham in October 2016. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images)
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