Athlete Jana Pittman, here with baby Emily, is going for gold in the family stakes!
The champion athlete only wants to race after her kids, with another sperm donor baby on the way writes NATALEE FUHRMANN
Jana Pittman has accepted she won’t be winning an Olympic medal this year. Instead, she’s expecting her third child – using the same sperm donor with whom she had daughter, Emily – and she couldn’t be happier. “I’ve got a bit chubbier this time around,” laughs the former world champion, who is also mum to son Cornelis, nine, with her ex-husband, and 15-month-old Emily. At 13 weeks pregnant, Jana – who became a household name thanks to her prowess at the 400m run and hurdle events, before turning her attention to the two-woman bobsleigh – still very much has the figure of an athlete. However she’s noticed it’s starting to change.
“I’ve got a flabby backside and the first signs of cellulite, which I’ve not seen before – but I’m embracing it! It is irritating because I exercise for at least 45 minutes every day, plus I eat a lot of healthy stuff. But I love doughnuts, and if there’s cake around, I’ll have it.”
Put off by Zika
With just a few weeks before the start of the Rio Olympics, this isn’t the position the twotime former world champion thought she’d be in.
“I was running times that would’ve just qualified me for the Olympics, but only to be a lane-filler,” says Jana.
But then her body started to fight her.
“I had 12 calf tears one after the other,” bemoans Jana, who has a long history of sportsrelated injuries.j
“When the email came around warning athletes about the Zika virus, that was it for me.
“I badly wanted a third baby and playmate for Emily, and it turns out I’m close to menopause despite being only 33. I couldn’t risk waiting for the two to three years they’re saying is necessary before getting pregnant.”
So with going to the Olympics off the cards, Jana decided to turn her attention to her other great love – motherhood.
Despite being in the third year of a five-year medicine degree, she booked herself in for IVF, determined to use the same donor sperm that produced Emily, so her little girl would have a “full blood” sibling.
Perfect family
“It means they can ask all the things a donor-produced child might want to know together,” beams Jana, who has already rehearsed her answer to the question, “Who’s my daddy?” “I’ll tell them: ‘Mummy really wanted and loved you, so I went to the doctor and asked him to please give me a baby. Then an amazing man gave me his seed.’ “If they then ask to meet their dad, then for sure, we will. I don’t know the donor, but I do know he’s Australian and has already been told he has offspring.” Of the 14 eggs that were harvested during treatment, only one was deemed viable – and that was given only a 30 per cent chance of “taking”. “It turns out I don’t produce great quality eggs,” she says.
New beginnings
“After implantation, I tested myself at home about 10 times – watching the faint line get darker each time – until my first blood test confirmed that I really was pregnant.
“It was amazing – I cried tears of joy,” says Jana, who recently discovered she was having a girl and has already chosen the name Matilda.
At the moment Jana lives alone with her children, but she’s rekindled love with an old flame since falling pregnant.
“I might even have another with my man, who knows!
“I so love being a mum and, believe it or not, I’m very, very maternal – soft as butter. “Motherhood is my new Olympics, and I can’t wait to meet Matilda,” says Jana, who takes great joy in seeing her little ones interact.
“It’s gorgeous seeing Cornelis making bottles for Emily and playing with her. Last week he was away, and he missed her so much they had a 20-minute phone conversation. She’s only one!” laughs Jana.
Future plans
Retirement isn’t a word that sits comfortably with the high achieving mum, who’ll be commentating the Rio games for Sunrise and Foxtel from Oz. But she is ready to concede her track days are behind her.
“I’ve no interest in watching my 400m hurdles final in Rio, because I’m not in it,” she says. “Who wants to rub salt in their own wound?
“But I won’t rule out another crack at the bobsleigh at the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. We’ll see what happens after Matilda comes along.”
‘Believe it or not, I’m very, very maternal, soft as butter’