Ana Umer’s return to the World Cup as a mother: “My life has changed”

Ana Umer and partner Den Habjan Malavasic welcomed their first child last year. Both are in Antalya this week to compete in the first stage of the Hyundai Archery World Cup.

The former European Field Champion made a reasonably quick comeback, her last previous event being late June last year.

A couple of months later, Nejc was born, and in February, Umer announced on Instagram that she started preparing for the 2023 season. She was on time and shoots in Antalya.

“It’s not easy, but I’m happy we can manage it with my partner and grandmas, and everything works well; and I can be back in the World Cup,” Ana said.

Tenacity, good planning and the grandmas’ helping hands allowed the couple to travel for the Archery World Cup opener with little their little boy.

“He is here with us. If he doesn’t want to come, I don’t come either,” Umer claimed, laughing. “He is going with us everywhere.”

The grandmas look after Nejc, while Ana and Den are competing.

“Before I got pregnant, we made a plan how our grandmas would go with us, that when I would shoot, they would take care of him. Luckily, he is now six months, so he can eat one meal in-between my shooting.”

The boy is still a baby, but old enough to spend a few hours without her mother.

Yet, it still requires a good time strategy, as Ana and Den have to combine parental duties with training and competitions.

“It’s not easy, but we are doing good,” she said. “I and my partner are a really good team, so we are doing day by day.”

“It’s all about time management.”

They planned how to organise their lives after the birth, even though it wasn’t obvious Ana would come back to the field.

“I’m always positive, but I wasn’t 100 per cent sure,” she confessed in Antalya. “I was looking forward, but life is life. You never know when something surprises you.”

“I do my plan, and sometimes it works out, and sometimes it doesn’t. But this time, everything until now is going well.”

Umer’s priorities changed. She moved archery a little bit away to fulfil her lifetime aim. It might reflect in her performance, but she enjoy beautiful moments with Den and Nejc.

“It’s not only archery in my life, my little baby is the most important,” she said. “Archery comes after now, it’s not in the first place any more.”

“It’s different, but we are managing things. Life has changed.”

Not long ago, her teammate Toja Ellison also made a very successful comeback following the birth of Ty, her and Brady Ellison’s first child. And she strongly supported Ana.

“She’s a very good friend of mine,” Umer said. “She also gave me the strength that we could do it. Until now, it’s going well.”

Even though, Ana resists from setting specific goals for the upcoming months.

“This season, I want to have a chance to come back. I don’t push myself to have any big goals or results, but I know what I’m able to do and that I’m a good archer.

“I just need some time to come back. And hopefully, I will be Ana as I was last year till the world championships.”

At the moment, shooting is not so easy as she’s lost some strength.

But what’s most important and what makes her happy is that she and her partner have achieved their goal of having a child and a family.