Double victory for Olympic fencer competing while seven months pregnant
Serena Williams won the 2017 Australian Open while pregnant. Now, Egyptian fencer Nada Hafez has shown the world you can win an Olympic fencing match-up while expecting, too.
Hafez, 26, revealed she was seven months pregnant one day after advancing to the round of 16 in the individual women’s saber competition at the Paris Olympics.
"What appears to you as two players on the podium, they were actually three! It was me, my competitor, and my yet-to-come to our world, little baby!” Hafez wrote Tuesday on Instagram.
Hafez defeated former NCAA champion Elizabeth Tartakovsky of Team USA in the first round Monday before falling to South Korea’s Hayoung Jeon.
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"My baby and I had our fair share of challenges, be it both physical and emotional,” Hafez wrote in the post. "The rollercoaster of pregnancy is tough on its own, but having to fight to keep the balance of life and sports was nothing short of strenuous, however worth it."
Hafez competed in Rio and Tokyo, but, as she wrote, Paris 2024 was her first Olympics "carrying a little Olympian one!”
The Paris Olympics have already represented several milestones for gender equality. For the first time in Olympic history, the Paris Games will feature an equal number of male and female athletes. Adding to this achievement, former track star and 11-time Olympic medalist Allyson Felix has teamed with Pampers to launch the first-ever nursery in the Olympic Village, providing vital support for athlete parents during the competition.
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