Gymnastics: GB’s Alice Kinsella aiming for rare return to elite competition as a mum

Kinsella doesn’t want to put a time stamp on his return but hopes to be “fully back” by the end of 2026, with the World Championships in Rotterdam, Netherlands, in October.

Next year’s World Championships in China will be a qualifier for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics and will follow a busy summer for sport, with the European Championships and Commonwealth Games a few weeks apart.

“I’m taking it day by day right now, but everything is going in the right direction,” Kinsella said. “I feel very positive about it.

“If I return before then [Worlds]That’s great, but if it’s not then I won’t stress too much.”

“Our biggest challenge right now is actually keeping him back a little bit,” said Young, the senior conditioning coach.

He added: “He’s making huge gains. He’s probably faster than we expected, but that’s probably a tribute to the elite athlete he is.”

Young hopes Kinsella “can be a trailblazer for other gymnasts to return to elite sports or any physical sport” after giving birth.

Trampoline gymnast Laura Gallagher, who Young also trained with, is the only Briton to return to gymnastics after giving birth.

There are a handful of women around the world who returned to the sport before the 2000s, and Russia’s Aliya Mustafina did it post-Millennial; but did not compete in another Olympics after suffering many injuries.

British Gymnastics commissioned research from the University of Kent for a paper titled ‘Returning to sport after birth: a case study of an elite gymnast’. He works closely with Julie Gooderick.

Dr Gooderick told BBC Sport: “Mid-career maternity leave for athletes is still not normalized and there is a real lack of research on best practices for a post-natal return to sport.

“The research team at Kent will follow Kinsella’s data on his path back to competition to provide a successful example of a holistic approach to a return to elite sport.

“As well as tracking physical testing data, including jump tests, trunk capacities and force production, we will also track changes over time in other aspects such as sleep, hormonal profiles and psychological factors through blood tests.

“This holistic approach may allow us to present key time points in the return to sport process, firstly, to ensure that Kinsella receives the best possible support throughout this process, and secondly, to guide other practitioners through this process in the future.”