Irish sprint canoeist Jenny Egan-Simmons is soon to welcome her first child, but that hasn’t stopped her love of sport.
The Dubliner and her champion canoeist husband Jon Simmons are expecting their first baby in August.
Jenny – who is 26 weeks pregnant – said she is very excited about becoming a mum and told EVOKE how she’s still training.
‘We’re due at the end of August. We’re very excited. So please God, everything will go well.
But Jenny said it has been important for her to continue getting into the canoe during her pregnancy.
She said: ‘I’m very much involved in my sport as well, I’m still training every day in some sense. I’ve been in the boat paddling’.
‘It’s not as comfortable as it has been’ said the 39-year-old, laughing.
‘I’ve really enjoyed doing gym, and I’ve just started swimming in the last few days. When you’re in the water swimming, you don’t feel the extra weight’.
And there will be no slowing Jenny down. She hasn’t approached the subject of retirement and while she still fancies competing after their baby is born, she would love to take up some more punditry.
‘I haven’t made that decision (retirement). I’ve been commentating this year and last year at the International Canoe Federation World Cup and World Championships Canoe Sprint so that’s been really interesting. I love punditry and broadcasting’.
Jenny said that despite the baby’s mother and father being champion canoeists, she won’t be pushing her child into the canoe when they’re older.
‘I would always want our child to be happy and do whatever they want to do,’ she said.
Jenny and Jon have been together since they were teenagers, after they met at a competition in England when they were 15 years old.
‘We met at competitions in England, and then my mum had arranged for me to go on a week-long training camp in the UK. That’s where I got to know him. Then he came over to Ireland visiting, and then the rest is history’.
The couple tied the knot in 2021, in the stunning BrookLodge & Macreddin Village Hotel in Co Wicklow.
‘That was a lovely celebration. We had a lot of international friends over for it’.
Despite both being competitive, Jenny said they have nothing for support for one another, with Jon now retired and coaching his sport instead.
‘Since 2019, Jon has been the national canoe sprint coach for Ireland. He did a race for Ireland in 2019 and then he retired after that. He got into coaching and he really enjoyed it,’ she said.
