| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nationality | German | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 24 June 1955 Hagen, West Germany | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Para-equestrian | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Heidemarie Dresing (née Heidemann; born 24 June 1955) is a German dressage rider in para-equestrian. At 66, she was the oldest German para-athlete on the Paralympic team at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo.
Dresing is a qualified architect by profession and comes from Hagen. In 2011, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. At first, she continued to practice her profession until she retired for health reasons. In 2012, she moved to Rheda-Wiedenbrück.
Dresing has been riding since she was 10 years old and also breeds horses. She has been married since 2019. [1]
Before her illness, Dresing took part in dressage riding tournaments in regular sport under her birth name Heidemarie Heidemann. Due to her illness, she can hardly move her left leg and arm at all and suffers from balance problems, as she herself said in her short portrait on ZDF in 2021. Despite the risk of frequent falls and associated injuries, she pursues her goals in para-equestrian sport.
At the German Championships in June 2019, Dresing won first place in the Grade II category on her horse Responsible for me with 145.671 points and became German Champion. [2] She made her European Championship debut in 2019 in Rotterdam, where she took fourth place with her Hanoverian mare La Boum, born in 2013. [3] At the Maimarkt tournament in Mannheim, she won the Nations Cup for Germany in May 2021 with Steffen Zeibig, Saskia Deutz and Regine Mispelkamp. [4]
The highlight of her career was her participation in the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, which took place in August 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. At the competitions in the Tokyo Equestrian Park, she and La Boum narrowly missed the bronze medal in the individual ranking of the Grade II category with 72.295 points and achieved 4th place. She also took 4th place in the freestyle with 74.867 points behind Lee Pearson, Pepo Puch and Georgia Wilson. In the dressage team competition, she competed with Saskia Deutz and Regine Mispelkamp. The team achieved 215.036 points and thus 7th place. Dresing's share of this was 72.515 points. [5]
At the 2022 German Para-Dressage Championships, Dresing won the gold medal in the Grade II category with La Boum with 149.68 points. [6] This qualified her for the World Championships in Herning (Denmark), where she took 7th place with 70.970 points. [7]
At the 2023 FEI European Dressage Championships in Riesenbeck, Dresing achieved 74.776 points in the individual Grand Prix A ranking and won the gold medal with her eleven-year-old Oldenburg horse Horse24Dooloop. [8] She also received gold in the individual freestyle ranking with 80.353 points, again with Horse24Dooloop. [9]
Laurentia Tan Yen Yi BBM PBM, is a Singaporean para-equestrian competitor. Tan developed cerebral palsy and profound deafness after birth, and moved to the United Kingdom with her parents at the age of three. She took up horse riding aged five years as a form of physiotherapy. She subsequently completed her A-levels at the Mary Hare Grammar School, a residential special school for the deaf, and graduated with an honours degree from Oxford Brookes University in hospitality management and tourism.
Sophie Margaret Christiansen, CBE is an English equestrian who has competed in four successive Paralympic Games. In 2012 and 2016 she gained three gold medals at the Paralympics. In 2008 she won two gold medals and a silver at the Beijing Paralympics whilst studying for a master's degree in mathematics at Royal Holloway, University of London. She works as a software developer at investment bank, Goldman Sachs and as a disability campaigner. She qualified for the postponed 2020 Summer Paralympics but had to drop out due to her horse not being fit.
Hannah Dodd is an Australian Grade IV equestrian and 1.0 point wheelchair basketball player who represented Australia in equestrian at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, coming 11th and 12th in her events. Switching to wheelchair basketball, she made her debut with the national team at the Osaka Cup in February 2015.
Michèle George is a Paralympic equestrian of Belgium. She won seven gold and one silver medal at the Paralympic Games.
Sophie Wells is a British para-equestrian who won three medals at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, and 2 Golds and 1 Silver at the 2016 Rio Paralympics, and most recently Team Gold and Individual Silver at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
Natasha Louise Baker is a British para-equestrian who won 2 gold medals at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, 3 at the 2016 Summer Paralympics, and 1 more in the 2020 Summer Paralympics.
Lauren Barwick is a member of the Canadian Equestrian Team, in grade II Para-Dressage, who has competed in the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Paralympic Games. She won three medals in those games. Barwick has featured in CBC's Heartland and has several awards.
Germany competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 September to 18 September 2016. The first places the team qualified were for four athletes in sailing events. They also qualified athletes in archery, cycling, equestrian, paracanoeing, paratriathlon, rowing and wheelchair basketball.
Sharon Jarvis is an Australian para-equestrian. She represented Australia at the three Summer Paralympics - 2008 Beijing, 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo.
Emma Booth is an Australian Paralympic equestrian. She represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics and the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
Lisa Martin is an Australian para-equestrian. She represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics and has been selected to compete at the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
Germany competed at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, Japan, from 24 August to 5 September 2021. This was their sixteenth consecutive appearance at the Summer Paralympics since 1960.
Elke Philipp is a German Paralympic equestrian.
Amelia White is an Australian para-equestrian. She represented Australia at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
Victoria "Vic" Davies is an Australian para-equestrian. She represented Australia at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
Suzanna Hext is a British Paralympic swimmer and equestrian, who won three gold medals in dressage at the 2017 FEI European Championships, and two medals at both the 2019 and 2023 World Para Swimming Championships. She finished fourth in two S5 swimming events at the 2020 Summer Paralympics.
Regine Mispelkamp is a disabled equestrian from Germany. She won a bronze medal at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in the Individual Freestyle Test Grade V. Therefore, she was awarded on 11 August 2021 by the President of the Federal Republic of Germany with the Silver Laurel Leaf, Germany's highest sport-award.
Kate Shoemaker is an American Paralympic equestrian. She represented the United States at the 2020 and 2024 Summer Paralympics.
Nathalie Bizet is a French Para-Equestrian Dressage rider. She won a bronze medal.
Roberta 'Bert' Sheffield is a British-Canadian Para-equestrian, who has competed for Canada at international competitions including the Paralympics.
