Back after maternity break, Bethany Firth wins silver at the World Para Swimming C’ships
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Britain's Bethany Firth en route to a silver medal in the women's 100m backstroke S14 final at the World Para Swimming Championships on Sept 22, her first competition in two years.
ST PHOTO: SHINTARO TAY
Follow topic:
- Bethany Firth won silver at the World Championships after returning from maternity leave, balancing motherhood and being an athlete.
- She wants to show her daughter Charlotte that self-worth should not depend only on winning gold medals in sports.
- Other athletes set world records at the championships, including Benjamin Hance, Jiang Yuyan and Taliso Engel.
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SINGAPORE – Grinning from ear to ear, Bethany Firth stood proudly alongside her compatriots as Britain swept the podium of the women’s 100m backstroke S14 final at the Toyota World Para Swimming Championships on Sept 22.
But not many people know that she was making her competitive comeback in Singapore after about two years, having just returned from a maternity break. The 29-year-old had become a mother in August 2024, giving birth to baby girl Charlotte.
Despite the long hiatus, she clocked 1min 5.54sec to clinch a silver medal at the OCBC Aquatic Centre, watched by about 1,000 fans in the 3,000-capacity venue.
Firth was 0.45sec behind 2024 Paris Paralympic champion Poppy Maskill, who won the gold in a championship-record 1:05.09. Georgia Sheffield was third in 1:06.27.
Asked about her juggling act of being a mother and an athlete, Firth said sport needs to support athletes like her more.
The six-gold Paralympian added: “The most challenging part of swimming is all the early mornings, there’s a lot of training. No one sees that.
“They only see a minute of that race, and they expect a lot from just one minute, whereas they don’t see all the hard work of getting up early and sacrifices.
“I want to be a really good mum and I want to give (Charlotte) lots of time. It’s hard when you’re an athlete, not to be selfish and give the sport a lot of time, because she’s the most important thing to me.”
When she first announced her pregnancy, many people speculated that she was retiring, but Firth was quick to quash such talk as the fire in her still burns strong.
She said: “People should never assume that, because I said I was pregnant, that I shut the door on swimming.
“It was my choice, and I really want to show them that I didn’t say I was retiring, and I didn’t retire. I came back, I came to the world championships, and I got a silver medal.”
Firth, who mentioned in a previous interview that she has a memory issue, competes in the S14 classification for athletes with intellectual disabilities. Her condition causes her to be unable to remember some of her many successes in the pool.
Being a mother has allowed her to put things into perspective.
She added: “I definitely think that everyone here is doing amazing just to even be here, and I think it’s not always about the medals.
“People are so concerned about gold, silver and bronze, but what about all the hard work that everyone else puts in? What about that fourth place or that person who actually made a final for the first time?
“I don’t want her to grow up in a world where you have to get gold for your self-worth, it shouldn’t be like that. It should just be about having fun and being here. And I want her to see that.”
(From left) Georgia Sheffield, Poppy Maskill and Bethany Firth at the medal ceremony of the women’s 100m backstroke S14 at the World Para Swimming Championships on Sept 22.
ST PHOTO: SHINTARO TAY
Meanwhile, three world records were broken on the second day of the championships.
In the morning session, Australian Benjamin Hance clocked 55.99sec to top the men’s 100m backstroke S14 heats and eclipse his own world record of 56.35sec set in June.
He won the final in 56.25, ahead of Brazil’s Gabriel Bandeira (58.37) and Britain’s William Ellard (58.95).
China’s Jiang Yuyan also lowered the world record in the women’s 100m freestyle S6 final, clocking 1:09.58 to eclipse her own record of 1:09.68, set at the Paris Paralympic Games.
Ukraine’s Anna Hontar (1:13.86) was second, with Switzerland’s Nora Meister (1:14.77) third.
In the men’s 100m breaststroke SB13 final, Germany’s Taliso Engel bettered his previous world mark of 1:01.84 set at Paris 2024. The 23-year-old clocked 1:01.69 ahead of Dutchman Thomas van Wanrooij (1:06.01) and neutral athlete Stepan Lisitskii (1:07.69).
Meanwhile, Singapore’s Toh Wei Soong finished 10th out of 11 in the men’s 400m freestyle S7 heats in 5:19.35, while Wong Zhi Wei (1:17.06) was last among 10 men in the 100m breaststroke SB13 heats.
On Sept 23, seven-gold Paralympian Yip Pin Xiu will aim to win the women’s 100m backstroke S2 title into the women’s 100m breast SB11 final
In the morning’s other heats, Han Liang Chou will compete in the men’s 100m breast SB14 and Jazlene Tan in the women’s 100m breast SB14.
