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Jodie Grinham is the first athlete to win a Paralympic medal while pregnant
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Jodie Grinham is the first athlete to win a Paralympic medal while pregnant



CNN

British archer Jodie Grinham has become the first athlete to win a Paralympic medal while pregnant, winning bronze at the women’s compound open on Saturday, organisers said.

For Grinham, exercising while seven months pregnant presented some unique challenges, such as having to ask her baby to stop kicking so she could focus on aiming the punch.

“The baby is kicking, it’s amazing. We got to the third end and I thought, ‘Not now, mommy loves you, but we’re going to kick in a minute,'” she said afterwards, via the Paralympic Games website.

“The baby hasn’t stopped, it’s like the baby is saying, ‘What’s going on, it’s really loud, mommy, what are you doing?’ But it’s a little honor to know the baby is here and just a reminder of the little bubble of support that I have in my belly,” she added.

Grinham defeated teammate Phoebe Paterson Pine to take bronze after both Britons narrowly lost their semi-finals. Turkey’s Öznur Cüre Girdi won the gold medal after beating Iran’s Fatemeh Hemmati in the final.

Jodie Grinham celebrates her bronze medal.

Grinham added that her preparations for the Paralympics included getting used to shooting and staying focused, as her stomach constantly changed her normal posture and routine.

“The baby could be in my back today, or it could be way forward. So it’s, ‘What do you do?'” she told reporters afterward. “My coach and I spent a long time doing little pregnancy preparations where she (the coach) would move me and the belly around so I could get used to that feeling.”

Grinham will be hoping to win her second medal of the Paris Olympics on Monday when she partners Nathan McQueen in the mixed team quarter-finals.

“I didn’t want people to see it as, ‘Oh, there’s a pregnant woman going to the Games,'” she said. “I want them to say, ‘Wow, a pregnant woman can compete at the highest level and win a medal,’ and show you that anything is possible. Just go do it. You want to do it? Do it.”