Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne did not want the birth of her son to mark the end of her career, rather, she wanted Freddie’s arrival to be the making of it.
And when she and crewmate Rebecca Wilde took Olympic bronze in the women’s double sculls at the Stade Nautique de Vaires-sur-Marne in August last year, the 30-year-old achieved just that.
She had shown the world that pregnancy should not signal the end of female athletes having a career at the top level of elite sport, and when Hodgkins-Byrne looks back on that day in the Parisian sunshine, she described how medalling in front of her son was the perfect justification for wanting to return to the sport.
“I am not joking when I say it [the bronze medal] is in my knickknack box next to my kitchen sink,” said Hodgkins-Byrne with a smile.
“The thing that means the most to me was Freddie being passed to me when I got onto the podium.
“That will always be the most special thing and more than I ever could have hoped for.
“He was why I had done it and my reason for coming back. That moment is the most special thing to me.”
It was not until Hodgkins-Byrne watched the women’s eight final with Freddie until she realised the impact the Games was having on her young son.
“He was beside me [during the women’s eight] and he was going ‘oh my gosh’ and clutching his face like clearly everyone else had been doing around him,” she fondly recalled.
“And then when the girls won a medal, he turned around and went “she did it”, which is clearly what everyone had been shouting when I won a medal.”
Three years prior to those events in the French capital, Hodgkins-Byrne’s career was at a crossroads when, shortly after finishing seventh in the women’s quadruple sculls in Tokyo, she found out she was pregnant.
That left her with a decision to make, either retire from the sport (or certainly not compete at the top level again) which Hodgkins-Byrne said was “the norm” at the time or continue with her career post-childbirth.
There was only ever going to be one outcome.
“I realised very quickly that I either had the decision of retiring - and my last result being seventh place at Tokyo with people probably saying I stopped because I became pregnant - or I carry on and I see if it is possible to come back in three years,” she explained.
“This had never been done before but making something not the norm has always kind of been my thing.
“It definitely was not expected for me to come back but I wanted to see if I could do it and I was lucky I had a really good support network.”
That support network was largely made up of Hodgkins-Byrne’s family, who she credits for helping her focus on achieving her rowing goals.
During training camps between November 2023 and March 2024 in Portugal, in the build up to the Team GB selection process, her mum took time off work to stay nearby with Freddie so she could see him between sessions.
Her partner also took leave prior to the Olympics to look after Freddie and, alongside Hodgkins-Byrne’s mum, the trio stayed five minutes around the corner so she could always see her son.
“At the time, he was too little, but he was also so intrinsically part of my journey that for me to go and detach myself from being his mum was not something I felt I was able to do,” she continued.
“Being able to see him [Freddie] in between sessions was really important to me, especially in the last Portuguese camp when the double was in selection.
“[Having Freddie there] put me in the right headspace and it gave me perspective on why I was doing it and what I was hoping to achieve.
“Without my family and everyone else who supported me, there is absolutely no way I could have done it.
“It takes a village rather than you doing it on your own, but it is absolutely possible with those right people behind you.”
Another element that makes Hodgkins-Byrne proud of her achievements is that she, along with other athletes who have competed post-pregnancy such as fellow rower Helen Glover, can act as role models to the next generation of female athletes and by doing so, change attitudes about how pregnancy within the sphere of sport is viewed.
She added: “It [pregnancy] certainly makes things more complicated, but I have been lucky enough to be part of a WhatsApp group where there is 15 of us [mothers] in it and some are even having their second now.
“I think the more of us that have this support network behind us, the more we are going to normalise it.
“And there is no one way of doing it, just because something worked for me does not necessarily mean it will work for others, but it proves that it is possible.
“And other athletes might have to take a different journey to make it possible for them, but no one can turn around to them now and say that it is not possible and that for me was the most important thing.”
Sportsbeat 2025