Annika Langvad, 2016 XCO World Champion and five-time Marathon XC World Champion, has released the first in a series of short videos documenting her journey to pregnancy. The 40-year-old Danish former professional mountain biker is expecting a baby girl in the coming weeks, but has revealed she has waited over seven years for this moment.
Langvad recalls her mountain bike colleague Gunn-Rita Dahle casually saying in 2017: “If you want to have kids, girls, don’t wait too long.” But for a professional mountain biker, it can be a difficult decision when your entire career revolves around your athletic ability.
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Looking back, if I had known then how long it would take to start a family, we probably would have started earlier. On the other hand, it would have forced us to choose between a career as a professional racer and a life of endless fertility treatments. As a professional athlete, there is so much more to career planning than just the races you want to compete in, etc. |
In the video, Langvad says she started thinking about having a family in 2015, but that she and her partner Thomas shifted their schedule after she became world champion in 2016 so she could compete in the rainbow jersey for a year, something not many people get to do. It also gave her time to finish her degree in dentistry, which she did alongside her career as a professional athlete.
At first she thought that the stress of racing might be the reason she didn’t get pregnant right away, but when she retired from racing in 2020, the couple turned to a private fertility clinic.
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When we started this journey, we had no idea what our problems were, let alone their severity. It was only as the process progressed that we were referred to the right specialists who were able to fully tailor the treatment to our situation.
The fact that we are here now and the birth of a little girl is imminent is still quite surreal. |
It turned out that her husband’s sperm quality was very poor, probably due to a chromosome translocation, which resulted in a low number of fertilizable embryos. When the couple had almost given up hope and Langvad was at a press camp for the new Specialized Epic 8 in Chile, she found out she was pregnant.
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To be honest, we were pretty overwhelmed. Of course we were happy, but in the back of our minds we still thought it wouldn’t last. I had a positive pregnancy test about a week before and that didn’t work. So it was a process that we slowly got into and started to believe in. |
In her next video, Langvad will talk about her experience with fertility treatment, which she says was one of the most difficult things she has ever experienced.
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In the next video I want to talk about the experience of going through fertility treatment. It is honestly one of the hardest things I have ever done, both mentally and physically. Being a professional mountain bike racer doesn’t even compare. It’s emotional stress and physical strain on a whole new level. If you want to hear more about my experience, stay tuned. |
We wish Langvad all the best for this next chapter.
