Aussie Olympian says celebrating birthdays is for ‘women’

Tony Abbott’s son-in-law and former Olympian Sam Loch has revealed the wild reason he doesn’t embrace his birthday.

Aussie fitness coach Sam Loch has said that he won’t be celebrating turning forty because birthday celebrations are for “women and children.”

Loch is famously married to ex-Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s daughter Frances. They’ve been together for half a decade but got engaged after only dating for a fortnight.

When a fan innocently asked Loch how he was planning to celebrate his milestone 40th birthday he wrote back a very surprising response.

No, he wasn’t planning a lavish party, a nice dinner or even going on a holiday to celebrate four decades of being alive, rather he explained that he wouldn’t be embracing a huge celebration.

Bodybuilder Sam Loch says celebrating birthdays is for "women and children". Picture: Instagram / @samloch

“My outlook is largely that birthdays are for women and children and that merely surviving another lap around the sun is not necessarily a reason for celebration,” he wrote.

“However my wife made a good point a few years back that birthdays are an opportunity for the people that love you to celebrate you. That softened my position a little,” he continued.

So what could change this man’s hardline view on birthdays? Well, something pretty simple.

He admitted that he liked “round numbers,” so turning forty was a bit more appealing to him than the average odd-number birthday and he’d celebrate his big day by using it as an opportunity to be “thankful.”

Of course, there isn’t actually any truth to celebrating a birthday being a gendered thing. It isn’t feminine or masculine to want to eat cake on your birthday or throw a party.

Loch is also a former Olympic rower turned prolific weightlifter and even previously set a world record in indoor rowing. Meanwhile, Frances is a former bodybuilder turned mum and the two are quite the muscled power couple.

Aussie fitness coach and former Olympian Sam Loch, with wife Frances. Picture: Instagram / @samloch

He has over 16,000 Instagram followers and he is a big fan of posting workout videos. The couple are fairly private but Loch did recently post a sweet photo of the couple and write about their very brief courtship.

“It’s a bold move asking someone to marry you two weeks after the day you met and it’s incredibly brave to say yes and follow through.

“I trusted my gut enough to ask, which was the best decision of my life. 5 years later and we are still going strong,” he said. “Thanks for saying ‘Are you serious’ then ‘Of course’ and eventually ‘I do.”

Loch has also posted a sweet couple snap of the two of them and called them “Power Rangers of Love,” in the past.

The couple reside in Portland in the US state of Oregon.