A GB Olympic rower who had a baby last year and is already back racing told a Parliamentary committee she felt ‘alienated’ and ‘sidelined’ by sports bosses when she told them she was pregnant.

Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne from St Weonards, who raced with her sister Charlotte in the women’s quadruple scull in Tokyo, told MPs on the Women’s and Equalities Committee she felt “pushed to the side” once she revealed she was expecting.

The 28-year-old, a former world U23 champion, is currently racing for the Upper Thames club instead of the national team, and won the prestigious elite singles title at London’s biggest regatta, the Metropolitan, on her return last month, before losing narrowly to Australia’s national singler at Henley Royal Regatta two weeks ago.

“From the minute I said I was pregnant, and currently, I’m not part of the squad,” she told MPs. “At the moment I’m now being treated as a development athlete, or an athlete who’s been injured or ill, rather than someone who has had a baby.”

Joining other athletes to discuss sexism and health inequality in sport, Mathilda said she had delayed telling GB Rowing she was pregnant until the end of 2021 due to concerns she would lose funding and until UK Sport released pregnancy guidelines.

But she said: “My biggest criticism to the pregnancy document is that it only goes to nine months postpartum, and I know in some sports it is possible to return – cycling they’re world champions in seven months – but in rowing I’m not allowed to race this summer and there’s no security for me or my funding.

“My support team have been brilliant, but the support team doesn’t include the coaches or management… and unless they’re on board it’s very easy to feel alienated and feel pushed to the side a little bit, which is my experience with it at the moment.”

GB Rowing chief Louise Kingsley told the BBC afterwards they were “very disappointed” by Hodgkins-Byrne’s comments, and had created a “bespoke coaching and training programme based on her needs, availability and fitness”.