As she prepares to make her Olympic debut later this month, Nur Suryani Mohamed Taibi’s greatest fear is not that she may succumb to the pressure that comes with being the first woman to represent Malaysia in shooting. Rather, Nur Suryani is worried about whether the baby girl inside her will kick just as she pulls the trigger: The Olympian will be eight months pregnant when she competes...

Nur Suryani has taken a year’s leave from her job as a logistics officer in the Malaysian Navy and said what helped persuade sports officials to give her the green light was that her performance improved as her pregnancy progressed. When she competed in a World Cup event in London in April, she shot 392 out of a possible 400. In Milan in May, she shot 394, and in Munich in the same month, she recorded 396.“Maybe during the Olympics I will increase another two points,” Nur Suryani said.

As the first-time Olympian prepares herself for an onslaught of media attention in London she has already envisioned the conversation she will one day have with her daughter. When she is old enough to understand, she says she will tell her, “You are very lucky, you’re not born yet and you already went to the Olympics.”