Woman Competing In Olympics At 8 Months Pregnant  I Don’t Feel Lazy Or Anything

Last year around this time we were all ooh-ing and ahh-ing over Amber Miller, a woman who ran the Chicago Marathon while 9 months pregnant. (For me personally, showering at 9 months pregs was like an Olympic sport.) Just minutes after crossing the finish line, Miller felt contractions; hours later, she delivered a healthy baby girl. (I know, right?)

Turns out Miller’s got nothing on Nur Suryani Mohamed Taibi, the 30-year-old Malaysian woman competing in the Olympics (the Olympics!) at 8 months pregnant with her first child. You’ll find her Saturday in the women’s 10-meter air-rifle competition, where she’ll be shooting away just one month before her due date. (I’ll likely be watching while lying down on my couch because I’ll be tired from, you know, waking up early with the kids.)

Just so you know, Taibi will be the most heavily pregnant athlete ever to compete at the Olympics. Her chances of winning aren’t so great Taibi is ranked 47th in the world but who cares? I mean, that fact that she’s there in the first place is pretty phenomenal.

“When I go to London, I will be 33 weeks,” she told Reuters back in April. “When I come back it will be 34 weeks.” That’s a cool thing to tell your child one day, no? Taibi said she’ll talk to her unborn baby a girl before she competes, telling her, “No kicking. Stay calm for one hour and 15 minutes only, please.” Because precision is key, it will actually make a huge difference if the baby kicks during the competition. But hey, there are only so many things you can control.

Did we mention that Taibi discovered she was pregnant just two days before qualifying for the Olympics in January? There were some naysayers, that’s for sure, but Taibi says her performance has actually improved during her pregnancy because the extra weight makes her more grounded. “Now I have balance at the front and the back,” she told BBC News. “So the stability is there.”

Whether she wins or not, Taibi is making history simply by competing so far into her pregnancy something she does not take lightly. “When the baby is born, I will tell her you are very lucky,” she said. “You were not born yet, but you competed with me in the Olympic games.” How cool is that? It kind of makes me want to go for a run (and by “run” I mean 30 minutes of a light jog/walk combo)…

(Photo: telegraph.co.uk)