A video shared on the social media platform, Twitter, has gone viral as it shows a heavily pregnant woman displaying her moves in Taekwondo. Nigerian athlete, Aminat Idrees won a gold medal in Taekwondo at the country’s National Sports Festival.
The video, originally tweeted from the official handle of National Sports Festival 2020, has been captioned as, “An inspiring outing by heavily pregnant Aminat Idrees who won a gold medal for Lagos at the ongoing National Sports Festival in Benin, Edo State. Aminat Idrees who is 8 months pregnant won gold in the Mixed Poomsae category in Taekwondo.”
Talking about her win, Idrees told a portal, “It’s such a privilege for me. I just decided to give it a try after training a couple of times… It feels really good. Before I got pregnant, I have always enjoyed training, so it didn’t seem different with pregnancy.”
The video has been shared multiple times across various social media platforms, which has garnered mixed reactions. While some people are in awe of her strength and congratulating her for her win, others are concerned about the intensity of her moves as she’s expecting.
When asked about it, Idrees told CNN, “A lot of people don’t understand what Taekwondo is actually about. I feel this is an avenue to educate people about this. Taekwondo has two branches: the combat sport and Poomsae – which is a form of exercise, just displaying the hand and leg techniques in Taekwondo. I participated in Poomsae event. I felt there wasn’t much risk attached to it, so I decided to give it a try. My doctor, as well as the organising body of the games certified me fit to participate in the non-contact sport.”