Chris Hoy's premature baby has tripled in weight
It's taken 11 weeks for baby Callum to reach the normal weight of a newborn
When Chris Hoy's son Callum was born 11 weeks early last October, he weighed just over 2 pounds. Now the Olympic cyclist and his wife Sarra can report that their premature son is “healthy, happy and doing fine” after tripling his body weight - to 7 pounds (about the average weight of a newborn).
"He is still very small, he’s only about seven pounds," Chris told The Daily Record. "He is only three months old but he’s getting there. He’s a Hoy, so he won’t struggle putting on weight.”
Chris tweeted a heart-stopping picture of his newborn at birth, looking desperately red, thin and fragile in his incubator, next to a heart-warming picture of his son 11 weeks later (on his actual due date) sleeping peacefully with a healthy colour and chubbiness. “He was in incubators, intensive care. But he’s doing really well now," he added.
The gold-medal cyclist retired from professional cycling in 2013 and now works with Team GB in an advisory role behind the scenes. But he admires athletes like Australian Open tennis champion Novak Djokovic who can combine parenthood with continued success. “I’ve no idea how they do it," he said. “I think it’s a combination of extremely hard-work and understanding partners and family support because you just can’t do the nappies, the night shift and train, rest and recover.
"The very nature of a professional athlete is that you have to put yourself first. When you have a baby, you put them first. So I have no idea how they do it."
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Photo: Twitter / Chris Hoy
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