When I saw the headline and the opening paragraph, I thought, "Way awesomely cool!"
Gold medal win with baby on board
A disabled Thai athlete gave birth to a baby girl two days after winning a gold medal in the discus event at the ASEAN ParaGames in Manila, officials said Wednesday.
But the rest of the story had me scratching my head.
Wanna Ladee, 22, said she did not tell anyone about her pregnancy because she was in desperate need of money for her newborn.
(. . .)
Wanna will receive a 50,000 baht ($1,250) reward for winning a gold medal in the discus as well as a bronze in the shot put event, Jaturaporn said.
Wanna was among 164 Thai athletes taking part in the December 14 to 20 games for the disabled that followed the Southeast Asian Games in the Philippine capital. More than 1,000 disabled athletes from 11 countries participated in the ParaGames.
"I did not tell anyone about my pregnancy because I needed the reward money for my coming child," Wanna told a Thai radio station interviewing her at the hospital.
Why should revealing her pregnancy cause a problem?
The Sports Authority of Thailand is to investigate how officials allowed the eight-month pregnant woman to take part in the games and also blamed the host country for not conducting dope tests from her urine which would have detected her condition.
Why shouldn't she be allowed to compete? We're not talking about running the marathon here. The discus and shot put both weigh far less than the "heavy lifting" limit that pregnant women are encouraged to avoid. I don't see the problem.
Congratulations to Ms. Ladee on both her athletic victories and the birth of her child.
Recent Comments