Pregnant archer shares hopes for Paralympics gold

Grinham missed the Tokyo Paralympics after recovering from serious injuries

An archer from Sussex will compete for ParalympicsGB at the Paris 2024 games while seven months pregnant.

Jodie Grinham, from Crawley, won Silver at the 2016 Paralympics in Rio and said this year she was aiming to beat that.

"I'm hopeful I can win gold," she said.

She said she was determined to prove "you can do it" while pregnant and described it as a "milestone" moment.

Grinham missed the Tokyo Paralympics after recovering from serious injuries.

"I just missed out on Tokyo but for this one I knew I could get there," she said.

However, the archer, who already has a son, said the "mummy in me" made her a "little bit devastated" that she was going to be away for so long.

"It's a really hard balance," she said.

Grinham said she and her partner went through a "heartbreaking" time before their first baby.

"We actually lost three before we had him. We knew we wanted another one but we didn't know how long it was going to take.

"But I got to the point where I wasn't going to be put off having a baby or prioritising my career.

"Why shouldn't I be able to have both?" she said.

Grinham went to hospital in Paris at the weekend worried her baby had stopped moving

Last weekend, Grinham spent two days at a Paris maternity ward after her baby stopped moving and she thought she might be going into early labour.

She praised the treatment she received and said her baby was "perfectly healthy”.

Days later, on Thursday, she fired 693 to rank fourth in the women’s compound event.

She said her archery strategy had not changed "too much" despite her pregnancy.

"I'm a bit more top heavy so I have got a bit of a lean but... my coach has been brilliant.

"She has helped me with things like cooling strategies and a belt that extends around my bump," she said.

On her hopes in the Compound Women Open, she said: "I'm hopeful I can win gold. I wasn't on a world class programme at the time of the Rio games.

"Now I'm in a better position and I'm in the individual and mixed team events."

Her next event will be on Saturday.