Stars of the triathlon world have been quick to express their joy after Ashleigh Gentle and partner Josh Amberger announced they are expecting their first child later this year.
The Australian athlete confirmed the good news on her Instagram account Thursday morning and within hours her ‘comments’ section and ‘likes’ were full of well-wishes and love heart emojis sent by so many of the sport’s biggest names.
In a true show of support by her fellow competitors, the significance of the announcement was clearly not lost on a community which has always seemed to pull together to protect and celebrate their own.
‘Recalibrating’ both body and mind
Gentle had only just returned to full training after suffering a miscarriage last December and deciding that she needed extra time to ‘recalibrate’ both body and mind.
In one of the season’s most impressive acts of bravery and resilience, she still managed to line up and finish sixth at the T100 Triathlon World Championship Final in Qatar, even though it was just a matter of days after her terrible news had been made public.
She had enjoyed a solid season on the T100 tour, with seven top-ten finishes out of her eight races, including a win in the French Riviera in August and a second place at Woolongong in October.
She had been on the original start list for the opening T100 in Australia alongside the likes of Kate Waugh, Taylor Knibb and Julie Derron but has now confirmed she won’t be taking part.
‘Baby Burger is cooking’
Her post on Instagram simply read: “Baby Burger is cooking 💛🌈❤️🔥”. And it was accompanied by two images of the very happy couple and one of a babygrow which announced, ‘Baby Burger arriving in 2026’ and had a cute pair of baby On trainers.
She later added: “I’m still within the first trimester but we are lucky enough to have seen our little one’s heartbeat twice already!
“Racing is fast approaching, so I felt like I couldn’t really keep this a secret much longer. Sorry I won’t be on the race course at T100 Gold Coast, but these life goals couldn’t wait.”
Among those who commented were Matt Hauser, Sophie Coldwell, India Lee, Kate Waugh, Lionel Sanders, Fred Funk, Anne Reischmann, Julie Derron, Jelle Geens, Lucy Byram, Maya Kingman, and Ellie Salthouse, with Lucy Bartholomew expressing what everyone was thinking when she said: “BEST POST TO OPEN TOO!!! That’s one lucky kiddo.”
Hayden Wilde, Ruth Astle, Sam Dickinson, Kristian Blummenfelt, Sam Laidlow, Lucy Charles-Barklay, Cassandra Beaugrand, Rebecca Anderbury, Beth Potter, Mathis Margirier, Jan Frodeno, Cameron Wurf, Taylor Spivey and Sara Pérez Sala also passed on their congratulations.
Josh called time on his triathlon career at the end of last year when he competed in the Patagonman Xtri in Chilean Patagonia.
