Jess Learmonth will make her T100 Triathlon Tour debut in Singapore this weekend and is hoping to prove she is still able to compete at the highest level as a mother
Olympic champion Jess Learmonth is ready to embrace a new era at the T100 Triathlon Tour in Singapore this weekend. Learmonth will make her T100 debut in the Lion City, just over 18 months from giving birth to son Frederick, and is determined to continue to compete at the highest level.
The Yorkshirewoman missed out on a place at the Paris 2024 Olympics, and has made the switch to the longer 100km distance which could suit her strong swim. The T100 Tour will host races across the world, including London and Las Vegas, and after making her return to competition last year Learmonth is out to show that being a mum is no barrier to getting back to her best.
“I’m not far away,” she said last year. “I’m just not as good as I was before, yet. There have been big changes in my life, having Fred and not training as much. It’s interesting to see how my body will react to doing less training and more recovery. It could go either way.
“I think Frederick’s helped me a lot because we’ve done a lot of tests in the lab and my numbers are probably just as good, if not better, than pre-pregnancy, certainly on the bike, which has kind of baffled me really,” she said.
“I don’t know if having him and the different hormones you get from having a child and post-birth has kind of helped me out, but it’s been really, really motivating. I just wish there was more definitive research out there that shows athletes can have children and come back and be just as good.
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“There’s still a lot of stigma around training through pregnancy and certainly what I was doing and I’d love to help get more exposure and help inspire all new mums who want to get back into sport.”
The T100 season begins in Singapore, before heading to Vancouver, the French Riviera, London, Las Vegas, Dubai and Qatar as part of a star-studded slate of races. Learmonth will be joined by compatriots Lucy Charles-Barclay and Kate Waugh, as well as reigning champion Taylor Knibb and back-to-back winner in Singapore Ashleigh Gentle.
Learmonth trained through much of her pregnancy but was keen to make sure she didn’t push herself too far in order to ensure she caused no extra problems on her return. “I probably shouldn’t have run on the day I gave birth,” she told PA. “I actually pulled my calf on a run in the morning and then gave birth that evening.
“Looking back, I was heavily over my usual running weight and obviously my gait was completely different because I had a big belly. Maybe if I hadn’t pulled my calf I’d have said it was fine. Looking back, with two weeks to go, I probably could have just chilled out a little bit.
“There were certain things I obviously did follow,” she said. “The massive one is not running for 12 weeks post-birth. If you come back too early, you can have problems later down the line.
“I followed all the advice, but it was the stuff they weren’t sure on that I kind of explored myself. I was still lifting heavy weights in the gym. I took the information and filtered it for me. They helped me find my own boundaries and explore what I could and couldn’t manage.”
Learmonth has used the disappointment of missing out on Paris 2024 to fuel her next venture in T100, and revealed there is plenty of support for mums competing at the elite level.
“It would have been a tough ask anyway, but at least it gave me motivation to get back into it,” she told the Yorkshire Post. “I probably wouldn’t have got back into the sport as quickly had it not been for the possibility of Paris.
“All my sponsors stood by me and even got new ones like Aqua Pura who are promoting female health and sport in general. A lot of companies are interested in a sporting female athletes and a mum. It’s not been as negative as I thought it might have been.”
The second season of the 9-leg T100 Triathlon World Tour starts in Singapore this weekend. Watch the world’s best female and male triathletes race live on Eurosport across Europe and TNT Sports in the UK and Ireland, or on PTO+ from anywhere. The women start at 0715 UK on Saturday 5 April; the men start at 0815 UK on Sunday 6 April. More information at www.T100Triathlon.com