Paralympic champion Vanessa Low makes remarkable long-jump comeback

Low was one of the first 14 athletes named in Australia's world championship squad on Monday after securing her qualification less than a year after giving birth to son Matteo.

The 32-year-old won the national title two weeks ago despite admitting "I didn't know how this journey would look. But the world-record holder trained almost the entire way through her pregnancy, including a pool session the day before giving birth, with the view to returning to the track as soon as possible.

She was back training a month after Matteo arrived in June last year and managed a jump of 5.04 metres in her return to the sand last month to secure her qualification for the championships in Paris.

To put that jump in perspective, Low won Paralympic gold at the Rio Games in 2016 with a 4.93 metre effort.

Low will be among the favourites when she arrives in France now that she's back and opponents will fear her after she broke her own world record three times on the way to winning gold at the Tokyo Games in 2021.

After the birth of her son, Low said she always had the intention of returning to competition but also knew that it may not be possible due to time constraints and how her body had recovered.

"If I don't feel like doing this [long jump] anymore that's fine, but I had a pretty loose mindset about it and wasn't really sure whether or not it was going to happen or not," Low said.

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"I'm still in it because I love competing, when you train for years at a time without competing it gets quite long. That's where we've been because through pregnancy I still trained and post pregnancy I got back into training, but I've been training the last year-and-a-half without competing."

Low says she's still getting used to juggling her athletics career with motherhood, but the "learning curve" is making her a better athlete.

With two world championship events and the Paris Paralympics all in the span of 18 months, Low is looking to use the events in Paris as a launching pad for her Paralympic campaign.

"I know this is going to be a very different experience and I know I'm probably not quite at my best yet. Actually managing my expectations and understanding we are at a different point now then we were going into Tokyo [Paralympics]," Low said.

"I want to go for a medal and I want to bring home a medal this year. I'm definitely having my sights on Paris next year so that's going to be the main event definitely for next year."

Partner and coach Scott Reardon says how impressive Low's journey back to competition has been due to the toll the pregnancy took on her.

"We got through 20 weeks then she swelled to a point where she couldn't fit her [prosthetic] legs on anymore and it was extremely difficult but she had the commitment to get out and get to training every day and make it happen with the goal of being a gold medallist," Reardon said.

"When you're an athlete, it's kind of so self-focused at times and now it's kind of just about enjoying the process as a family unit and as a coach/athlete but also as a family going to do something together."

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