Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Born | Mettendorf TG | 11 April 1995||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Education | Thurgau University of Education | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Catherine Debrunner (born 11 April 1995) is a Swiss athlete and teacher. She has competed for Team Switzerland at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships where she won a gold and a silver medal. She won the 2024 London Marathon and set new course records at the 2023 Berlin Marathon, the 2023 Chicago Marathon, and the 2023 New York City Marathon. She won five gold medals at the 2024 Paralympics in Paris including one for the T54 Marathon. [1]
Debrunner was born on 11 April 1995 in Mettendorf, Switzerland. [2] Due to a birth defect in her spine, she uses a wheelchair. [3] While attending a sports camp in Nottwil, she met her future trainer and coach Paul Odermatt. [4]
Debrunner competed in the T53 200 metres at the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships, where she earned a silver medal with a time of 30.64. [5] She qualified for the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio, [6] where she finished seventh in the Women's 400 metres. [7] Debrunner subsequently took a break from sports to focus on her education before returning to Team Switzerland for the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships. [8] In Dubai, she earned a gold medal in the Women's 400m T53 [9] and a silver medal in the women's 800m T53 race. [10]
At the 2022 Berlin Marathon, Debrunner, competing in her first marathon won the race with a time of 1:36:47, breaking five-time winner Manuela Schär's streak of five Berlin Marathon wins. [11] In May 2023, Debrunner was awarded the Laureus World Sports Award for Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability. [12] Later that year, Debrunner set another world record at the 2023 Berlin Marathon with a time of 1:34:16 [13] and made her U.S. race debut in the 2023 Chicago Marathon in October. During the Chicago marathon, Debrunner set a new course record with a time of 1:38:44. [14] She also won the 2023 New York City Marathon, setting a course record with a time of 1:39:32, [15] and the 2024 London Marathon. [16]
She won five gold medals and a silver at the 2024 Paralympics in Paris. Including a gold for the T54 Marathon which she led from start. The Australian Madison de Rozario came second and the American Susannah Scaroni had the bronze medal. [17]
Kurt Harry Fearnley, is an Australian wheelchair racer, who has won gold medals at the Paralympic Games and crawled the Kokoda Track without a wheelchair. He has a congenital disorder called sacral agenesis which prevented fetal development of certain parts of his lower spine and all of his sacrum. In Paralympic events he is classified in the T54 classification. He focuses on long and middle-distance wheelchair races, and has also won medals in sprint relays. He participated in the 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 Summer Paralympic Games, finishing his Paralympic Games career with thirteen medals. He won a gold and silver medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and was the Australian flag bearer at the closing ceremony.
Christie Dawes is an Australian Paralympic wheelchair racing athlete. She has won three medals in athletics at seven Paralympics from 1996 to 2021.
David Russell Weir is a British Paralympic wheelchair athlete. He has won a total of six gold medals at the 2008 and 2012 Paralympic Games, and has won the London Marathon on eight occasions. He was born with a spinal cord transection that left him unable to use his legs.
Tatyana McFadden is an American Paralympic athlete competing in the category T54. McFadden has won twenty Paralympic medals in multiple Summer Paralympic Games and the Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability in 2015.
Madison de Rozario, is an Australian Paralympic athlete and wheelchair racer who specialises in middle and long-distance events. She competed at the 2008 Beijing, 2012 London, 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Summer Paralympics, winning two gold medals, three silver and a bronze. She has also won ten medals at the World Para Athletics Championships and four gold at the Commonwealth Games. De Rozario holds the world record in the Women's 800m T53 and formerly in the Women's 1500m T53/54.
Angela Ballard is an Australian Paralympic athlete who competes in T53 wheelchair sprint events. She became a paraplegic at age 7 due to a car accident.
Marcel Eric Hug is a Paralympic athlete from Switzerland competing in category T54 wheelchair racing events. Hug, nicknamed 'The Silver Bullet', has competed in four Summer Paralympic Games for Switzerland, winning two bronze medals in his first Games in Athens in 2004. In 2010 he set four world records in four days, and at the 2011 World Championships he won a gold in the 10,000 metres and four silver medals, losing the gold in three events to long term rival David Weir. This rivalry continued into the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, where Hug won two silvers, in the 800m and the marathon. In the 2013 World Championships Hug dominated the field, winning five golds and a silver. During the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio, Hug was one of the most consistent competitors in the T54 class, winning two golds, in the 800m and marathon, and two silvers medals, in the 1500m and 5000m.
Samantha "Sammi" May Kinghorn is a British World Champion wheelchair racer and TV presenter.
Samuel Harrison Carter is a Paralympic athlete, who competes in 100m, 200m, 400m T54 events. He has represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics and 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
Zübeyde Süpürgeci is a Turkish Paralympian athlete competing in the T54 disability class events of 100m, 400m and 800m as well as T53/T54 class 4 × 400 m relay event.
Yassine Gharbi is a Paralympic athlete from Tunisia competing in T54 class wheelchair racing. He participated in the 2016 Paralympic Games and is a World Champion in both the 400 and 800 metre races.
Susannah Scaroni is an American Paralympic athlete. She won the gold medal in the women's 5000 meters T54 event at the 2020 Summer Paralympics held in Tokyo, Japan and the silver in the same event in Paris, 2024. She also represented the United States at the 2012 Summer Paralympics and at the 2016 Summer Paralympics.
Nikita den Boer is a Dutch wheelchair racer. She won the bronze medal in the women's marathon T54 event at the 2020 Summer Paralympics held in Tokyo, Japan.
Sho Watanabe is a Japanese wheelchair racer, who won the 2017 Tokyo Marathon, came second at the 2020 Tokyo Marathon, and came third at the 2017 New York City Marathon and the 2023 and 2024 Tokyo Marathons.
Tomoki Suzuki is a Japanese wheelchair racer, who won the 2020 and 2024 Tokyo Marathons, came second at the 2015, 2018, 2021 and 2023 Tokyo Marathons, and came third at the 2017 Tokyo, 2019 and 2023 London Marathons. Suzuki and won a bronze medal in the mixed 4 × 100 metres relay at the 2020 Summer Paralympics, and a bronze medal in the marathon T54 event at the 2024 Summer Paralympics.
Nathan Maguire is a British wheelchair racer. He won multiple medals at both the 2018 and 2021 World Para Athletics European Championships, and also won the 400 metres mixed class race at multiple British Athletics Championships. Maguire competed in the 4 × 400 metres relay T53/T54 at the 2016 Summer Paralympics, and competed in the 400 metres T54, 800 metres T54 and mixed 4 × 100 metres relay events at the delayed 2020 Summer Paralympics. He was part of the British team that won a silver medal in the 2020 Paralympic mixed 4 × 100 metres relay. He also competed for England at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, and won the 1500 metres T54 event at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Aaron Pike is an American athlete who competes in wheelchair racing, biathlon, and cross-country skiing. He has competed at the 2012, 2016 and 2020 Summer Paralympics, as well as the 2014, 2018 and 2022 Winter Paralympics. Pike finished second at the 2022 Boston Marathon, third at the 2021 and 2022 Chicago Marathons, and fourth at the 2018 and 2019 New York City Marathons as well as the 2021 Boston Marathon. He won multiple medals at the 2023 World Para Nordic Skiing Championships, including winning the 12.5 km seated event.
Zhang Yong is a Chinese Paralympic athlete. He won the silver medal in the men's marathon T54 event at the 2020 Summer Paralympics held in Tokyo, Japan. He also won two silver medals and two bronze medals at the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
Eden Rainbow-Cooper is an elite English Paralympic athlete from Portsmouth. Rainbow-Cooper is a T54 athlete who competes as a wheelchair racer.
Daniel Jonathan Sidbury is a British wheelchair racer. He won the silver medal in the men's 1500 metres T54 event at the 2022 Commonwealth Games held in Birmingham, England. He is also a two-time bronze medalist at the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships held in Paris, France.