Ashleigh Orchard: From pregnancy to fulfilling the Olympic dream

Call it a hunch, but Ashleigh Orchard might well be the only athlete at this summer's Olympic Games who has thought about attempting a 'Couch to 5k’ in the last year.

When Orchard (née Baxter) gave birth to a baby girl, Arabella, in August of last year, playing rugby at Paris 2024 couldn’t have been further from her mind.

The rough plan at the time was to run a marathon, and a ‘Couch to 5k’ programme would be the best way to get back moving. Or so she thought.

So, how did the new mother end up preparing to fulfil a lifetime ambition of becoming an Olympian?

A former Ireland XVs international at wing and then flanker, Orchard was part of the Six Nations Grand Slam side of 2013, while she also featured on their famous run to the World Cup semi-finals in France the following year, before turning to Sevens where she was a regular for Ireland up until a persistent calf injury forced her to step away in 2018.

The door had always been left open to return to the Sevens programme, and after eventually getting her injury problems sorted, she returned to a development group late in 2022, playing tournaments in Elche and Dubai that led to a contract offer from David Nucifora.

Orchard got that call from Irish Rugby performance director in December 2022. Later that evening found out she was, in fact, pregnant.

"I had to go back to David to let him know I couldn’t take the contract," the 33-year-old says of that fateful day.

"I suppose at that point, I was like, ‘ah this is a new adventure, I’m not going back, I’m not going to an Olympics’. I had Arabella obviously, and I didn’t think I was going to go back."

Rather than being the end of her Olympic dream, it was only the beginning, with head coach Allan Temple-Jones getting in touch to see if