Personal information | |
---|---|
National team | South Africa |
Born | 1998 Klerksdorp, South Africa |
Height | 1.69 m (5 ft 7 in) |
Weight | 55 kg (121 lb; 8 st 9 lb) |
Sport | |
Country | ![]() |
Sport | Para Athletics |
Disability class | T37 |
Coached by | Shaun Bownes |
Medal record |
Liezel Gouws (born 1998) is a South African female Paralympic athlete and a world record holder of 800m event under T37 classification for women (2:42.39) which was set in 2015 at Johannesburg, South Africa during the national Championships. [1] She also competed in the 2016 Summer Paralympics. [2] [3] [4] She was also part of team South Africa for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games where she finished fifth in the 400m final.
Gouws was born in 1998 not as a disabled child in Klerksdorp. Gouws had to confront cerebral palsy which was resulted due to a stroke she had in 2004, when she was just five years old. [4] She sees her recovery process and abilities that she has today as miracle on miracle. There were doctors who gave her just two years to live. Currently she competed at three World Championships and two Paralympic Games for South Africa. She is also a Pharmacy student at the NWU.
Liezel Gouws started to involve in Para Athletics in 2012 and went on to make her international debut in 2013. She broke the world record for the 800m event under the T37 classification in 2015. In 2016, she was awarded the Para Sportswoman of the Year. [5] [6] She was part of team South Africa at the 2017 and 2019 World Championships as well. She competed at the 2016 and 2020 Paralympic Games as well.
Eliza Ault-Connell, is an Australian wheelchair racer, who competed at Paralympic and Olympic Games. She survived meningococcal disease and plays a major role in improving the Australian community's awareness of the disease.
Dame Sophie Frances Pascoe is a New Zealand para-swimmer. She has represented New Zealand at four Summer Paralympic Games from 2008, winning a total of eleven gold medals, seven silver medals and one bronze medal, making her New Zealand's most successful Paralympian. She has also represented New Zealand at the Commonwealth Games.
Dame Sarah Joanne Storey, is a British Paralympic athlete in cycling and swimming, and a multiple gold medalist in the Paralympic Games, and six times British (able-bodied) national track champion. Her total of 28 Paralympic medals including 17 gold medals makes her the most successful and most decorated British Paralympian of all time as well as one of the most decorated Paralympic athletes of all time. She has the unique distinction of winning five gold medals in Paralympics before turning 19.
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.
Jemima Moore is a Paralympian athlete from Australia competing mainly in category T53-54 4 x 100 metres relay events. She represented Australia at the 2008 Beijing and 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Rosemary Little is an Australian Paralympic athlete. She won a bronze medal in wheelchair racing at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, and has also competed in handcycling. She competed at the 2020 Summer Paralympics, her third Games, where switched from wheelchair racing to shot put.
Carol Lynn Cooke, is a Canadian-born Australian cyclist, swimmer and rower. A keen swimmer, she was part of the Canadian national swimming team and was hoping to be selected for the 1980 Moscow Olympics before her country boycotted the games. She moved to Australia in 1994, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1998, and took up rowing in 2006, in which she narrowly missed out on being part of the 2008 Beijing Paralympics. She then switched to cycling, where she won a gold medal at the 2012 London Paralympics, two gold medals at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympics and a silver medal at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
Beverley Jones is a Paralympian from Wales competing in category F37 throwing events. Jones won a bronze medal at the 2006 Commonwealth Games as an EAD in the 100m sprint. Jones has qualified for four Summer Paralympics from 2000 to 2012 finishing fourth twice, in the sprint in 2000 at Sydney and in the shot put at Athens in 2004.
Elizabeth Johnson is a British swimmer who has won gold medals in the Paralympic Games and International Paralympic Committee (IPC) world championships. She has cerebral palsy, placing her in the S6 classification.
Johanna Benson is a Paralympian athlete from Walvis Bay, Namibia. She competes in T37 long jump and sprint events and at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London she won the women's 200 metres race in her classification. Her 200 metres success in London made her the first Paralympic gold medalist in Namibia's history.
Nikita Stevie Howarth is a New Zealand para-cyclist and para-swimmer. She became New Zealand's youngest ever Paralympian after being selected for the 2012 Summer Paralympics, aged 13 years 8 months. She again represented New Zealand at the 2016 Summer Paralympics, where she won the gold medal in the women's 200 metre individual medley SM7 and the bronze medal in the women's 50 metre butterfly S7.
Samantha May Kinghorn is a Scottish World Champion wheelchair racer and TV presenter.
Anrune Weyers, is a South African para-athlete. She took up athletics in 2010. Weyers was born with a congenital defect in her left arm and competes in the T47 disability class. At the 2011 IPC Athletics World Championships she came second in the 400 m and sixth in the 200 m. In 2012, she won two medals at the London Paralympics, namely silver in the 400 m and bronze in the 200 m. Later that year these medals were stolen while she was travelling from George airport in the Western Cape. At the 2013 IPC World Championships she came second in both the 200 m and the 400 m.
Ella Azura Pardy is an Australian Paralympic athlete who competes in the T38 100m, 200m and long jump. She represented Australia at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in long jump and the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships. She represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics in athletics where she won a bronze medal and the 2020 Summer Paralympics.
Kadeena Cox is a parasport athlete competing in T38 para-athletics sprint events and C4 para-cycling and British television presenter. She was part of the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships and the 2016 UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships, in which she won world titles in the T37 100m and C4 500m time trial respectively.
South Africa entered 45 athletes in the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro from 7–18 September 2016. The country qualified athletes in archery, athletics, canoeing, cycling, equestrian, powerlifting, rowing, swimming, shooting and wheelchair tennis.
Marieke Vervoort was a Belgian Paralympic athlete with reflex sympathetic dystrophy. She won several medals at the Paralympics, and she received worldwide attention in 2016 when she revealed that she was considering euthanasia.
Lauritta Onye is a Paralympian athlete who competes in F40 classification throwing events. She competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro winning gold in the F40 shot put. Onye is also an actress, performing under the name Laury White.
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.
Madjid Djemai is an Algerian middle distance runner.