From athlete to mother, the journey of GB basketball player Jo Leedham-Warner

The phrase, 'ball is life', is a pretty good summary of Jo Leedham-Warner’s world.

Since moving to the USA to pursue a basketball career as a 16-year-old, the British star has been devoted to playing the game.

Drafted to the WNBA in 2010 by the Connecticut Sun, she made her professional debut in Poland and then spent a season in Australia playing in the WNBL under Great Britain’s head coach Tom Maher, before representing her country at London 2012.

Since then, the bulk of her time has been playing in France, until 2020 presented a new challenge.

While the Team GB Olympian has had many trials and tribulations throughout her career, her love of the game has prevailed. But in the last eight months the 33-year-old has faced her biggest personal challenge: An unexpected off-court transformation.

At the end of March 2021, Leedham-Warner is expecting her first child. A girl.

And as she shared with Olympic Channel in an exclusive interview, it's a transition she has "really struggled" with.

Coming to grips with pregnancy and challenges

''Most people go woo hoo, you’re having a baby. It's super exciting, because it is," Leedham-Warner tells us of her transition from full-time athlete to expectant mother

"But I had a number of people who were like, how are you? Are you OK? And I really appreciated that because I really struggled and I felt I went round in a bit of a circle feeling like a terrible person because I wasn't ‘woo hoo I'm going to be a mom’ kind of thing.

"I was kind of selfish, thinking like, oh, my gosh. Like I completely lost myself. What am I? I don't know who I am without this (sport) kind of thing.''

Coming to grips with the pregnancy was a challenge in itself.

''Me and my husband talked about having kids, like, obviously at some point and then when it actually happened to me I was not ready for it in that moment. I was completely taken aback. I was kind of frantic," she shares.

Once the initial shock had worn off and she became more comfortable with her situation, the Team GB player says the next obstacles she had to overcome was the physical changes she was experiencing.

''I never really appreciated my body as an athlete like I do now, which sounds completely crazy.

"But I think, especially as women, we're always striving for more and more and more and just perfection. And we’re never satisfied with how we look or what we are.

"Now that my body's going through all these changes, I'm looking back at pictures and I'm like holy moly, I was like, super fit. And what's crazy is that in this picture, I was like, I’m going to get stronger, going to get lean. I'm going to do this. And I'm looking at myself now like, what much more did I really want?"

Body issues and mental well-being around her pregnancy

Leedham-Warner admits reaching this comfort level has taken some time.

''It's been a complete mental transformation for me on just how I view things in myself and just being a bit nicer to myself. And I realise that I'm so wired to chasing perfection, when what I'm doing is actually good enough. So it's completely changing my mental well-being. It's really kind of woke me up to the mental side of things that the women do go through with body issues.

As an athlete who’s conditioned to push through tiredness and pain barriers, she’s learned to adapt her way of thinking and in some respects, changed her outlook about who she is as a person.

''I've really started to slow down. This last week, I was just super tired and as an athlete, you just push through it because you're wired that way. And I kind of had, like, an epiphany last week. And I was like, this is not something that you push through, there is two people to think about, you've got to read the signs. So yeah. Loving yourself and being OK and accepting things has been such an epiphany for me.''

She admits she’s doesn’t frequently post on social media, but she decided to make a concerted effort to share her pregnancy journey online, hoping it might help other female athletes with the transition to motherhood.

And while it’s been a rewarding experience, it’s also been a learning curve after she started to receive unsolicited messages of advice and feedback about the way she was training.

''They all became doctors and physios and strength and conditioning coaches. And at first, I was like, no, I know my body. My doctors have told me what to do. I know exactly what I'm doing. But then you start to get self-doubt. And I hate that, because doubting yourself is just such a terrible feeling as both a person, and as athlete.''

Knowing what she knows now, if she could go back and have her time again, her advice to herself in navigating the early stages of parenthood is quite simple. Talk.

''I would say to be open and honest and to use my support network around me, like not bury my head in the sand, which is exactly what I did. I felt like I was then lying and telling multiple lies, because people were asking me, 'when are you going overseas, what club are you going to?' And it was just eating at me.

"What was interesting to me is that I had a lot more support than I thought that I did. When I explained to people, look, this is what I've been going through, they were like, you should have come to me sooner.''

Coaching experience and future

Leedham-Warner has helped take Great Britain to three FIBA Women’s EuroBasket final-round tournaments, and has been a regular at club level in the EuroLeague Women.

The Olympian has also taken up the opportunity to try new things, such as coaching.

In March of 2020 she was appointed assistant coach for the GB Under-16 Women’s squad. The team is something of a family affair, with sister Jen Leedham the head coach. Renee Busch rounds out the coaching staff as a fellow assistant coach in the all-female coaching set-up.

The British women are yet to make their second appearance at the Olympics, after debuting at London 2012. They came close to qualifying for the Tokyo 2020 Games in 2021 but fell short after losing to European Champions Spain in Belgrade in February 2020.

''It's so frustrating not to qualify. I've never been able to go back and watch the games. It's just super tough. I felt like we really blew it. And I know that sounds really harsh but just as a competitor and knowing our team, I just felt like we really blew it.

"We were good enough, we just fell short by like three points. It's still just such a hard pill to swallow. So I try not to think about it, but when I do and then I think about Tokyo happening this year, I'm like, oh my gosh, am I going to be able to watch it.''

After GB failed to qualify, she hinted at retirement, telling BBC sport, ‘’Potentially this is my last game for GB, I am not sure I will suit up again.’’

But since the disappointment, much has changed for the 33-year-old.

"Sometimes you don't get that choice because of injury, but I feel like I really want to try and come back, and especially because I'm having a little girl.

"I would love, love, love to just have her there with me. And she definitely wouldn't remember anything. But I have more of a reason and a few moments with her to share. I would absolutely love that. So, I'm kind of like training and focusing on doing that.’’