The late Olympic snowboarder Alex ‘Chumpy’ Pullin‘s widow recently welcomed their baby girl just 15 months after his passing.
Pullin was a two-time world champion snowboarder who tragically died while spearfishing in Australia in July 2020. The 32-year-old snowboarder competed in three Olympics in total and was the Australian flag bearer at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.
El Pullin announced back in June that how she was pregnant, a dream the couple had been trying to achieve for years. She said the couple had been trying to have a baby, and after going through IVF, in vitro fertilization, she finally became pregnant.
“When my love had his accident, we all held onto hope that I’d be pregnant that month,” she wrote. “ IVF was on our cards but it wasn’t something I ever imagined I’d be tackling on my own. Bittersweet like none other, I’ve never been more certain or excited about anything in my entire life.”
The couple’s baby, Minnie Alex Pullin, was born on Oct. 25. Pullin went on the podcast Darling, Shine! to talk about her journey with IVF.
“I’ve seriously wanted a child since I was 16 years old,” she said. “I’ve had no doubt in my mind that I wanted to be a mom.”
“We did that sperm retrieval process, of course, because Chump passed away, to get his sperm,” she added. “The doctor did hand select the best viable sperm out of the millions and popped it straight into the egg.”
She calls Minnie her miracle as previously, she had a previous miscarriage at 7 weeks.
She told Vogue Australia that her pregnancy was also “bittersweet” adding “on one hand it feels overwhelmed with happiness while also knowing Chump’s not here to share in it.”
“Nothing is ever going to tie a neat bow around my grief, in fact pregnancy, birth and motherhood will likely create secondary losses and fresh shoots of grief in the myriad ‘I wish you were here’ pangs that shoulder everything I do. One might think that on the other side of grief lies joy, but I’ve learned grief, hope, strength and happiness can co-exist. I will continue to carry the torch of our future, and soon a little piece of Chumpy will be back in my arms again.”