Clegg and her fiance Dan Powell, a judo Paralympian who competed at London 2012, welcomed baby Edward in April.
Both parents are visually impaired – Clegg having Stargardt’s macular dystrophy, a deteriorating eye condition that gives her only slight peripheral vision in her left eye. Nappy changes, she says, can be fun.
“Motherhood is completely life-changing,” she says. “I’m fortunate in that he’s a good baby – he’s really calm, he sleeps well.
“Initially, we had lots of worries and concerns about how we were going to parent. For me, it was stuff along the lines of if he got a rash, whether I would notice.
“But we’ve just got on with things. It’s just the same sort of concerns every parent has, regardless of whether you’ve got a disability or not.”
Despite Edward’s difficult birth, two weeks after his due date, Clegg returned to training little more than four weeks later. There was no running at first, more balance and stability work as her body – a “little bit sore” following her C-section – adapted to new pressures.
“My body isn’t my own any more; it feels completely different and really alien,” she says. “It has gradually got better as the weeks have gone on. I’m improving, but your priorities change.
“My priority is my son but when I’m at training, I want to be as focused as possible so that when I’ve finished, I know I’ve done it properly because that is time I have taken away from my son when I could be at home.”
