There is no doubt that when you talk with Firth now, she has a different perspective on life and her swimming.
“People always put a lot of pressure on me. I felt like people expected me to win gold, and it turned into more of a pressure and something that I had to prove myself,” she said.
“I felt like I wasn’t good enough if I didn’t get the gold, but having Charlotte just changed everything.
“Watching the girls compete in Paris, I thought it was great. It made me want to swim, but it didn’t make me feel like I missed it, or I would change anything or I wanted to be there, to be truly honest.
“When I win a medal, you get that buzz for a few seconds. With Charlotte I get that buzz all the time, when she crawls or when she walks or when she does the little things she does.”
So, did she ever contemplate retirement? After all Firth is one of Northern Ireland’s most successful athletes.
Six Paralympic titles plus three silvers, five world titles, four silvers and a bronze and a gold for Northern Ireland at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. No one would have had anything negative to say if she had decided to stop.
“I think it was more that people assumed I would finish my career and the more they assumed, the more it annoyed me, and the more I thought, actually, this is really bad for women in sport,” she added.
“Why do we have to choose? Why are people just assuming I’d stop if I had a child?
“It actually never crossed my mind. I knew it would be hard, and I think the challenge of it being hard crossed my mind, but having my family support me and having Charlotte it feels like it makes it all worth it.”















