'F***ing kills me': Pregnant widow's devastating Chumpy Pullin reveal
The pregnant partner of Alex 'Chumpy' Pullin has made a heartbreaking admission about the late Aussie snowboarding legend, as she prepares for the birth of the couple's child.
Pullin died last year while spearfishing along an artificial reef off Palm Beach on the Gold Coast.
The 32-year-old former world champion and Winter Olympian drowned after suffering a ‘shallow-water blackout’ when trying to hold his breath for too long.
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Pullin was the flag-bearer for Australia at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia and his death rocked the sporting world.
In June, however, Pullin's widow Ellidy Vlug revealed that she was pregnant with the couple's child, taking to Instagram to show off her baby bump in a series of photos.
Vlug explained that the 'miracle' came about as a result of IVF.
Speaking on her Darling, Shine! podcast, Vlug opened up on the devastating reality of life without her partner and the fact that 'Chumpy' never got to experience fatherhood.
“My grief is for Chump, he’s missing out on being a dad. I see dads with their babies knowing how good he would have been,” she told the podcast.
“Every day I go to the beach and I see guys walking along the beach with their chicks and the guy is carrying the baby in the carrier on his chest and the girl’s got the dog.
“When I see a dad with a baby it f***ing kills me, and I am so happy for that person, it’s not a pity party here."
Vlug is due to give birth in the coming days and while admitting how special it will be to bring Chumpy's child into the world, she concedes it's a "bittersweet" feeling.
“I’m having a baby which is going to be the most beautiful thing ever and bittersweet in that it’s almost going to create more trauma here and there,” she said.
“It’s really hard to swallow the fact that he’s missing this, he deserves this time, he wanted this, he would have been the best dad.”
Alex 'Chumpy' Pullin's tragic death
The death of dual world champion snowboarder and Winter Olympics star Pullin sent shockwaves through the sporting community.
Pullin was dragged from the water unconscious and paramedics spent 45 minutes trying to revive him.
“When he told me he’d decided to go for a dive, I was just like ‘epic, love you, watch out for sharks’,” Vlug said last year.
“I always say that.
“He was a family man through and through. Me, and his sister and parents and (dog) Rummi were his world. I don’t know what I’m going to do without him.”
Vlug called Pullin a “beautiful man” in a note she left for the media on the front door of the Gold Coast home they bought in 2018.
"Know that Chumpy absolutely loved life and lived life to the full,” she wrote.
“I am eternally grateful that I have lived my life with him and I am deeply saddened that his life has been cut short.”
Known affectionately as ‘Chumpy’, he won world championship titles in 2011 and 2013, and nine World Cup gold medals.
Pullin’s parents and girlfriend were joined by hundreds of mourners at Palm Beach in the days immediately following his death, with a traditional 'paddle out' taking place to honour him.
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