CHARLOTTE, North Carolina — Mallory Weggemann is a "mama on a mission" to showcase what is possible.
The three-time Paralympic gold medalist competed in the U.S. Paralympics Swimming National Championships in Charlotte, NC this weekend at 26 weeks pregnant.
"It has been so special to be here. I've been on our national team for the better part of the last 13 years but to now be in this stage of my career, three Paralympic games in and racing six and a half months pregnant with our first child, is more than that 20-year-old version of me who made her first national team could've ever dreamed of," Weggemann, 33, said.
Weggemann placed second in the 50 meter fly and qualified for the finals in the 50 free and 200 IM. But Weggemann said it wasn't about the end result.
"As a woman, and a woman with a disability, just showcasing what is possible. It was so much more about that than any time that I would swim," Weggemann said. "It's just showcasing that path forward for other individuals and hopefully inspiring our next generation to understand that it's not an either/or as a woman. We have choices and you can continue your career, you can continue your athletic career, through motherhood if that's what you choose and there's an avenue for you to do that."
Weggemann became paralyzed from the waist down in 2008 after receiving a routine epidural injection in her back to treat shingles. Since then, she's gone on to win five Paralympic medals — three of them gold.
"There's still so much stigma that exists within pregnancy for women and there's so much stigma that exists for women with disabilities in their journey to parenthood, in general. So I think just having that moment of sitting behind the blocks and realizing that that image is about something so much larger," Weggemann said.
Weggemann and her husband, Jay Snyder, have also been open about their journey to becoming pregnant through IVF due to male factor infertility.
"There's a lot of shame and isolation and we really wanted to try and be a voice to that. My husband has been really focal and really courageous in that journey," Weggemann said. "People naturally assume that we went through infertility because I am a woman with a disability, more specifically a woman with a disability that brings with it a wheelchair. And that visual, they just make the assumption that that's the reason why we're seeking infertility treatment which isn't the case."
Weggemann said she's already received encouraging messages after racing in nationals at 26 weeks pregnant. A meet official's daughter, who uses a wheelchair, said to her parents after seeing a picture of Weggemann that she didn't know somebody in a wheelchair could have babies.
Weggemann's final race of the weekend was in the 200-meter individual medley which she won gold for in Tokyo during the Summer Paralympic Games in 2020 — setting a new world record. She hopes to defend her title in the 2024 Summer Paralympic Games in Paris.
She said, "Fast forward just over a year and a half, hopefully all goes well and I'll get to see my husband in the stands in Paris holding our Little One and then I'll get to show them photos and tell them that this one time when I was pregnant with them I got to race it with them."
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