“Wouldn’t Survive”: Olympic Gold Medalist Makes A Scary Confession Involving Son’s Birth

A week ago, this Olympic gold medalist made a post captioned, “39 weeks ✅ Guess our babys birthday and gender 🥳.” Alongside was a picture of her, with a clearly visible pregnant belly. And now, while the guesswork is out to the public, we have some shocking updates about the delivery, too.

Taking to her Instagram handle today, Sarah Sjöström posted two pictures – one of herself with a boy on top, while another of her husband Johan De Jong Skierus, holding the baby in his arms. She wrote, “August 26th at 8:05 pm, our beautiful son Adrian came into the world, right outside the hospital (södersjukhuset) on the hospital driveway in an ambulance. 🩵” And with the good news comes the complications she went through.

The 3x Olympic gold medalist wrote, “I was managing the contractions at home with breathing, a warm bath, or tens for 24h. 5h hours before he was born, we went in for a check-up because I had a feeling it was close to delivery. But we were sent home since I was still in the very early stages.(only 2 cm open).” At 2 cm, the mother is in early (latent) labor, but far from active labor, which typically begins around 6 cm dilation. That is why they were sent home. Though things started to go south from that very moment…

Her contractions became unbearably strong and painful, and then she started bleeding. The couple immediately dialed up the delivery ward at the hospital they were supposed to go to. The Olympic champion said that the midwife on the phone seemed to pick up from her breathing that she was already in the pushing stage. But to make matters worse, the hospital was full. The midwife insisted on sending an ambulance right away to take them to a different one. Sarah was thankful for that, but more pain was yet to come.

“The ride to the hospital, felt endless. Even though it was with full throttle and blue lights on. The pain was indescribable, way to late for any pain relief like I had planned to go for. I truly believed, that I wouldn’t survive. When we arrived, the ambulance doors were thrown open by the delivery team, and our baby was already on his way out. He was born right there in the chaos outside the hospital entrance in the ambulance,” The Olympic gold medalist shared. But that very birth was nothing but magical…

Sarah described the moment he was placed on her chest and she heard his first cry as, “From unimaginable pain and fear to the most magical moment of our lives. It was traumatic and magical all at once.” She said that her body and soul will take time to heal, but “we are endlessly grateful that he is finally here. And that he is an healthy and happy boy. 🥹💙✨”. Reminds us of that play by Willian Shakespeare, All’s Well That Ends Well. Her body will mostly recover in 6 to 8 weeks, but bearing all that pain for a healthy boy might be worth it.

It was never an easy journey for the Olympic champion

Back in February, when Sarah announced that she was pregnant, she confessed, “I knew that many women experience challenges during the first trimester (and throughout pregnancy 😳), but I wasn’t prepared for just how tough it could be. These past weeks have been some of the most mentally and physically challenging I’ve ever faced.” The first trimester is often physically and emotionally demanding, marked by fatigue, nausea, tenderness, and mood swings.

While she knew which way she headed, the swimmer just did not know how deep the waters were. This only made her admire the strength of women. And it was that very spirit that she did not give up on her passion as well. On days when her body supported it, she swam.

The Olympian promised to return to competing at a high level. She spoke about how much she’s always admired women who keep pursuing their athletic careers after pregnancy, and said that, more than anything, it’s her own curiosity that keeps pushing her to try.

The three-time Olympic gold medalist also expressed, “My dream is to compete at the LA 2028 Olympics and make it to my sixth Olympic Games. 🏆” At Rio 2016, Sjöström made history by winning Sweden’s first-ever Olympic gold in women’s swimming in the 100m butterfly, setting a world record of 55.48 seconds. Then she added to her medal haul with silver in the 200m freestyle and bronze in the 100m freestyle.

In Tokyo, she earned silver in the 50m freestyle. At the Paris 2024 Olympics, Sarah Sjöström captured a stunning sprint double, winning the 100m freestyle in 52.16 seconds and the 50m freestyle in 23.71 seconds, after setting a new Olympic record of 23.66 seconds in the semifinal.

Undoubtedly, she is one of the best Sweden has ever had. Don’t you think?