Star shooter Amber Rutter delivers silver medal for Team GB just three months after giving birth to baby boy
STAR shooter Amber Rutter delivered a silver medal for Team GB yesterday — three months after giving birth to her baby boy.
She lost out on gold only after judges failed to spot she had hit a target in a tense shootout for the top spot in the skeet final.
Her medal was one of four won by Brits yesterday, with golfer Tommy Fleetwood also winning a silver.
Amber, 26, of Windsor, Berks, had no idea her husband was cheering her on with their son until she turned around after winning silver and caught sight of them in the crowd.
James and baby Tommy caught a flight from Heathrow to Paris on Saturday to surprise Amber at the final.
She said: “I didn’t spot them, thank God, because I said to my whole family, you’re not coming, I’m focusing on me and if I hear Tommy cry, that will be it, my focus will be straight on him.
“So I don’t know how close to the range he got, but I hope it wasn’t that close because he would definitely be playing with fire. I’m just so pleased that he’s here to celebrate with me and I just can’t wait to celebrate with my family back at home.”
James said: “She didn’t want anyone here, so we respected that. But last night me and Tommy hopped on a plane.
“With the help of some of the British shooting staff, they managed to sneak us in and be here for that moment.”
James, who works in engineering, said: “I was umming and ahhing thinking about it. I thought that whatever happened, she would love to look around and see Tommy, and hopefully me.”
He added little Tommy had been “good as gold” while his mum was away at the Olympics.
Amber was back training six weeks after April’s birth and wants her medal to be a message to mums that “life doesn’t stop after having a baby”.
A record nine mothers are competing at the Games this year for Great Britain, with supermums Helen Glover and Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne already winning rowing medals.
Amber tried to challenge the controversial decision that led to her getting silver and Francisca Crovetto Chadid of Chile gold, with replays showing that she had clearly hit the target.
But because there is no VAR in Olympic shooting, the judges’ decision had to stand.
