Paris Olympics 2024: Helen Glover Opens Up About Heartbreaking Baby Loss and Marriage to Famous Husband - OK! Magazine

With the 2024 Olympics in Paris marking Helen Glover’s fourth time at the Games, the rower is a familiar face to sports fans across the globe. But besides competing in this year’s competition, the two-time Olympic champion has been given a very special role which will see her be one of the flag bearers at the opening ceremony on Friday, 26 July.

Joining Tom Daley in the role, 38 year old Helen revealed how carrying the British flag would be “the biggest honour of my life” after previously coming out of retirement to compete in the Olympics in Tokyo in 2021.

So, as she prepares to compete for her third Olympic title, let’s take a closer look at Helen’s life…

Born in Cornwall, Helen took up rowing just four years before she and rowing partner Heather Stanning won Team GB’s first gold medal at the London 2012 Olympic Games in the women’s coxless pair. One year later, the duo were given an MBE in the New Year’s Honours List.

In 2016, they both headed to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games where they defended their gold medal, though Helen retired from the sport that year.

Having met wildlife presenter Steve Backshall at a Sport Relief event in 2014, Helen and Steve tied the knot in September 2016 during a romantic clifftop ceremony at Piskies Cove in West Cornwall.

In March 2018, the pair revealed that they were embarking on “the biggest adventure of our lives” and that they were expecting twins. “It will be a big change but such an exciting one,” she wrote on Twitter, now known as X.

“It's something we've wanted together for ages, and we are both really happy - Steve is absolutely beside himself.”

Sadly one month later, the Team GB rower revealed that they’d lost one of the twins that they were expecting. “We've had the hard news that one baby hasn't made it but we are very excited and hopeful for the remaining baby to arrive this summer xx,” she wrote on social media.

In July 2018, the pair welcomed a son, Logan James David Backshall, into the world. In January 2020, Helen and Steve expanded their brood and revealed that they’d given birth to twins, a baby boy and a baby girl, with Helen joking that they were “gonna need a bigger boat!”

Then, in 2021 the Olympian stepped out of retirement to take part in the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. She finished in fourth in the Women’s pair with Polly Swann, though made history when she became the first mother to compete in Team GB’s Olympics rowing team.

Speaking of being a working mum at this year’s Olympics, she told the Evening Standard: “I’d love to win a medal. If I do that, no British mum-of-three has ever won an Olympic medal. I want to represent mums and show what we can do. It would be a big difference to come away with a medal.”

Discovery+ is the new home of the Olympics. The streamer is set to broadcast 3,800 hours of sport live from Paris.

Sports fans can get Discovery+ for £3.99 a month until the end of 2024 via Amazon Prime's video channels. This also comes with an Amazon Prime 30-day free trial.