Romani runner in Slovakia whose junior career has been so hopeful confirms she is pregnant

Annamárie Horváthová, the talented Romani athlete and junior champion of the Slovak Republic in the 1 500 meter race, will probably not see her career rise as rapidly as was first anticipated. The 16-year-old, who lives in Modava nad Bodvou’s Romani settlement, has announced that she is now pregnant. 

Her boyfriend of 10 months, with whom she has been living for a couple of months, has now abandoned her. “We broke up, he has a new girlfriend,” the athlete has confirmed to the Nový čas periodical. 

A neighbor of hers had predicted this outcome to the publication:  “Anna will stop doing sports by the summer because she will be pregnant. Her mother can’t do anything about it. It’s her first guy, she’s quite in love with him, and she’s not interested in anything else!” 

Three years ago the athlete shocked the sports world, and not just in Slovakia, when she won a local race running in a pair of old ballerina flats that were falling apart. Her success was a hit on social media and experts predicted a glorious future for her, including Norbert Pecz, her trainer.

Despite her pregnancy, Horváthová does not have give up her dream of another big athletic victory. Biathlete Marie Dorin Habert of France became world champion just six months after giving birth, for example.  

Barbora Špotáková, a javelin thrower, and kayaker Štěpánka Hilgertová both successfully returned to high-level sports after giving birth as well. Kristiina Mäki, a runner, is the mother of a seven-month-old son, Kaapo, and made it to the finals of the 1500 meters in the Olympics in Tokyo just last week.