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Are the days of pregnancy meaning you get to lounge about in elastic pants and eating ice cream with pickles over?
First with Marissa Mayer taking on the role of CEO at six months and now with Malaysian athelete Nur Suryani Mohamed Taibi, who is competing in the Olympic Games at eight months pregnant.
Nur Suryani, who is ranked 47th in the world in the 10-meter air rifle event, is already taking a year off from her career as a logistics officer in the Malaysian Navy. There is nothing that will stop her from competing in the Olympics. “I got the qualification, so it’s mine,” she told reporters about Malaysian sporting authorities who questioned whether or not she would be in shape to compete.
Fortunately, shooting isn’t as strenuous an activity as long-distance running, but it is a sport that is determined by breathing, balance, and concentration. Any mother knows that your breathing changes during pregnancy, and at eight months, Nur Suryani has re-learned her breathing and shooting techniques. But what happens if the baby kicks at the wrong time? Nur Suryani says, “I will talk to her, say, ‘Mum is going to shoot just for a while. Can you just be calm?’”
She is fully concentrated on competing with everything she’s got, and she even comments that with the added baby weight, she feels more stable on her feet. While most male authorities are worried that she will be too stressed, they recognize that she earned her place and has proven to be a solid competitor, even with the baby growing bigger. For Nur Suryani, she believes that she must take the chance that is in front of her. “For me nothing is impossible. It’s one of the challenges. If I abandoned it, maybe who knows? Another four years to wait, maybe I don’t have the opportunity.”
As the most pregnant woman to reportedly compete in the Olympics, there is no doubt that she will receive a lot of press. “My stomach is more popular than me,” she commented. She further joked that when her daughter is old enough to understand, Nur Suryani will tell her, “You are very lucky. You were not born yet and you already went to the Olympics.”
What a lucky baby! Even though we want to root for Team USA all the way, it’ll be hard not to hope this pregnant warrior gets the gold!
