European Athletics (EAA) – News – Former European champions Hellebaut and Kumbernuss are mothers again

Belgian high jumper Tia Hellebaut and German shot putter Astrid Kumbernuss, who are both former Olympic and European champions in their disciplines, became mothers for a second time in the last few days.

Hellebaut, who also celebrates her 33rd birthday on Wednesday, won at the 2008 Olympic Games and also the 2006 European Athletics Championships. She gave birth to a daughter named Saartje on Tuesday.

She initially retired in 2008 after Beijing triumph and her first daughter Lotte arrived in June 2009. However, she made a brief return to the sport last year and finished fifth at last summer’s European Athletics Championships in Barcelona.

A winner at the 1996 Olympic Games and also the 1990 European Athletics Championships, 41-year-old Kumbernuss gave birth to a daughter Hannah Marie last Thursday.

Kumbernuss was also the female 1997 European Athlete of the Year, the year she also won the German Sportswoman of the Year award.

Her first child, a son called Philip, was born in 1998 and she missed that year’s European Athletics Championships because of her pregnancy after also finishing second at the event four years previously. She went on to compete in her fourth European Athletics Championships in front of her home fans in Munich in 2002, where she finished fourth.

She was also victorious at three consecutive World Championships in 1995, 1997 and 1999 before retiring from the sport in 2005. Her many other honours include winning gold medals at the 1994 and 1996 European Athletics Indoor Championships.

European Athletics offers their congratulations to both women and their families.