Archer Yaylagul Ramazanova has been competing in the heats for archery at the Paris 2024 Olympics and managed to score a surprise win while carrying a good luck charm—her unborn child.
“I felt my baby kick me before I shot this last arrow, and then I shot a 10,” the first-time Olympian, who is six and a half months pregnant, told official Chinese state news agency Xinhua News on Aug. 5. She then shot a 10, the maximum number of points, and the score she needed in order to defeat China’s An Qixuan, who had been favored to win.
“During the training for the Olympics, I didn’t feel uncomfortable with my pregnancy. Instead, I felt that I was not fighting alone, but fighting together with my baby,” she said.
Ramazanova was unfortunately eliminated during the next round, but she added that she was satisfied because she “did her best.”
“I felt my baby kick me before I shot this last arrow, and then I shot a 10,"
Meet 7 months pregnant Azerbaijan 🇦🇿 Archer Yaylagul Ramazanova. The first athlete from her country in this discipline.
Here’s to phenomenal women. May we know them, may we raise them, may we be… pic.twitter.com/DPsgvAVX27
— MiyeTani! (@Miye_Tani) August 3, 2024
Team USA’s archer Casey Kaufhold, who is ranked No. 1 in the world, was also impressed by what Ramazanova achieved.
“I think it’s awesome that we see more expecting mothers shooting in the Olympic Games and it’s great to have one in the sport of archery,” the 20-year-old told The Associated Press. “She shot really well, and I think it’s really cool because my coach is also a mother and she’s been doing so much to support her kids even while she’s away.”
“I think it’s awesome for this archer that one day, she can tell her kid, ‘Hey, I went to the Olympic Games and you were there, too,'” Kaufhold added.
Stories of athletes competing while expecting have become less rare.
After Egypt’s Nada Hafez competed in fencing last week, the athlete revealed she had been fencing for two, at seven months pregnant. “What appears to you as two players on the podium, they were actually three! It was me, my competitor, & my yet-to-come-to-our-world, little baby!”
The athlete added that she and her unborn child have had their “fair share of challenges,” both “physical” and “emotional” throughout the event due to the pregnancy, but powered through to accomplish what she did.
Additionally, U.S. beach volleyball star Kerri Walsh Jennings won her third gold medal while unknowingly five weeks pregnant with her third child.
“When I was throwing my body around fearlessly, and going for gold for our country, I was pregnant,” she said on “Today” after the London Games in 2012.