Lynsey Sharp on her Tokyo hopes being halted by pregnancy and her Olympic ambitions

Almost three decades on, history may well be about to repeat itself. 

Last week, Sharp announced she and her boyfriend, fellow GB runner, Andy Butchart, were expecting a baby, quickly followed by confirmation that she has no intentions of ending her career and plans to return to athletics after giving birth. 

For some, the prospect of resuming life as an athlete with a baby in tow would be unthinkable. Sharp, though, has first-hand experience that having a child does not necessarily mean the end of life as an athlete. 

“My mum was still running after she had kids – maybe not quite to the same level as me but she was still training and so Carly and I grew up playing in the sandpit at Meadowbank,” remembers Sharp.  

“So it might end up being just the same for me and my kid.” 

When Sharp broke the news on Instagram last week, it’s fair to say it came as a bolt from the blue to all athletics’ observers. 

With the Tokyo Olympics just two months away, the expectation was that the 800m specialist would be soon on her way to Japan for what would have been her third Olympic Games. 

Certainly, that was Sharp’s assumption. 

When the pandemic caused the postponement of the Olympics last summer, Sharp, who had been battling a number of injuries at the start of 2020, felt somewhat relieved she was no longer in a rush to regain her fitness. 

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But as the sporting world began to restart, Sharp admits she wasn’t wholly enthusiastic about what she saw. 

As an athlete who performs at her best in front of packed stands, the prospect of racing in empty stadiums was not something she relished. 

“When Tokyo got postponed, for me personally, it wasn’t the worst thing because I hadn’t had the best run-in,” the 30-year-old says.  

“But for me, having competed at such an amazing time for the sport in this country and going to London 2012 and Glasgow 2014, it’s hard trying to get excited about going to a stadium with no fans and no atmosphere.” 

Despite the restrictions caused by Covid, the effect they will have on this summer’s Games and the reservations she had about competing in the current environment, the plan was, says Sharp, to be in Tokyo. 

That’s not to say that starting a family had never crossed her mind. But maybe not quite yet. 

“There were times when it’d be an almost daily conversation between Andrew and I with me saying ‘I really want to have kids’,” she says.  

“I’ve not always been like that, it’s just since I met him that I’ve started really thinking about it. 

“So we’d had that conversation about starting a family quite a few times but having said that, I was 100 percent going for Tokyo this summer.” 

However, as most people are aware, babies don’t always stick to the plan. 

In early March, Sharp felt not quite right. A negative pregnancy test dispelled her instincts but then a few days later, a strenuous training session gave her pains in her chest and overwhelming feelings of sickness, prompting her to wonder if her initial hunch had been correct. 

“I got home from training and did another test. And it was positive,” she says. 

“I remember it so clearly – I saw the blue lines and was like ‘oh my god, what the f*ck am I going to do?’.” 

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Things were complicated by the fact that Butchart had just left for the European Indoor Championships in Poland and so, with him due to race, Sharp decided to keep him in the dark until he returned home a few days later. 

“Andrew walked in our front door and that’s when I told him,” she says.  

“I filmed his reaction – he’s got full GB kit on and he’s eating a biscuit and I said it as soon as he walked through the door. 

“He was really happy.” 

In those early weeks, Sharp admits she was uncertain if she wanted to return to elite-level athletics. 

Having collected a number of accolades throughout her career, including becoming European champion in 2012, Commonwealth and European silver in 2014 and a sixth-place finish at the 2016 Olympics, Sharp has achieved more than most already. 

And, she admits, had she been asked previously about the prospect of returning after having a baby, she would have been adamant it wasn’t for her. 

In recent years however, attitudes towards women giving birth and returning to elite sport have changed. 

With Serena Williams, Jessica Ennis-Hill, Allyson Felix et al having debunked the myth that babies and elite sport don’t mix, falling pregnant no longer spells the end of female athletes’ careers. 

And so Sharp, who is 15 weeks pregnant, has entirely changed her attitude about a return. 

“I never, ever thought I’d have a child and come back. 

“I’m quite selfish, as are most athletes because I suppose we have to be. So I always found it hard to imagine how I could be so selfish and have a child too,” she says. 

“But I’ve started to realise how empowering it is. To be able to say to my child ‘I had you and I was able to still do this.’  

“I don’t have to give up on my other dreams, that’s huge. 

“I’ve also seen others come back. 

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“Melissa Bishop (fellow 800m runner from Canada) is one of my closest friends in the sport and had a baby in 2018 and she’s come back possibly even better than before. 

“If I hadn’t seen these amazing people come back over the last few years, I think I would have been less likely to try and do it myself.” 

While the logistics of juggling a baby and a career as one of the world’s best runners is, clearly, not an easy task, Sharp is optimistic the perspective having a baby can give you will, in fact, be of huge benefit to her. 

“Everyone I’ve spoken to has said a kid brings a whole new dimension to your life and you have a whole new purpose,” she says. 

“I race better when I care less which sounds weird but sometimes, I get too hyped and want to do too well.  

“So now, I’ll want to do well but I’ll know it’s not the end of the world.” 

Sharp may no longer be focusing on this summer’s Olympics but Butchart, on his fiancé’s orders, most certainly still is.  

He will be away from the couple’s home in Stirling for most of the next two months as he prepares to qualify and then, all going to plan, compete in Tokyo.  

With Sharp due to give birth in mid-November – their October wedding has now been pushed back a year - the obvious question is will the baby have runner’s genes? 

Sharp, whose father, Cameron, was a Commonwealth and European medallist in the sprints, is optimistic her son or daughter – they will find out in a few weeks the sex of the baby – will be blessed with sporting talent. 

“I definitely believe you can inherit those genes,” she says. 

“We went for a scan a few weeks ago and I’m not joking, its legs are so long, it’s ridiculous. 

“I was thinking it’s only 7cm so how can its legs be 20cm already?!” 

Sharp is reluctant to commit to any concrete timescale for her comeback but has set herself the target of a return to training in the new year.  

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With the Commonwealth Games, European Championships and World Championships all taking place in 2022, she has no shortage of events to aim for and while her pregnancy has gone smoothly so far, with Sharp continuing to train most days, she is well aware that it is entirely unpredictable what lies ahead. 

She will, she says, be quick to ask the likes of compatriot Eilidh Doyle for advice about how to navigate the coming months and returning to training after the birth while watching the Tokyo Games will, she expects, be something of a surreal, and maybe even difficult experience having expected to be in Japan herself. 

However, says Sharp optimistically, maybe she still has a third Olympic appearance to come. 

“The first few weeks after finding out I was pregnant, I found it tough to watch everyone racing but now, I’m just really excited about what I’m doing,” she says. 

“Having said that, I think Tokyo might be hard to watch, I’ll just have to see.  

“And who knows, maybe I’ll be in Paris in 2024 with a toddler there with me.”