Piers Gilliver MBE | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Gloucester, England | 17 September 1994|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Weapon | Épée A / Sabre A | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
National coach | Peter Rome | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Club | University of Bath | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Disability class | A | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Piers Alexander Gilliver (born 17 September 1994) is a British wheelchair fencer, who competes in both épée and sabre. He is the 2020 Paralympic champion in the Individual Épée, A classification. He is the first British Paralympic champion in the sport since Carol Walton in 1988.
Gilliver has previously won medals at both World and European Championship level. In 2016 he represented Great Britain at the Rio Paralympics and won a silver medal [1]
Gilliver was born in Gloucester, England on 17 September 1994. [2] He attended Hopebrook C of E School in Longhope. He has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome a congenital illness which in 2007 left him as a full-time wheelchair user. [3]
Gilliver first got into wheelchair fencing in 2010 at his local fencing club in Cheltenham after looking for a new sport as his mobility decreased. [1] [4] He joined the British Disabled Fencing Association in 2011. [4] In 2012 Gilliver made his international debut for the British team at a World Cup event in Warsaw, coming 11th in the Category A épée. [4]
In 2013 Gilliver took part in his first IWAS World Championships. The same year he was named Junior World Champion in the U23's Category A épée. [4] In the buildup to the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio, Gilliver took nine podium finishes at international matches including the silver medal at the IWAS wheelchair fencing World Championships in Eger. [1] [4] In 2016 he was selected for TeamGB at the 2016 Summer Paralympics where he gained a silver medal in the Épée A. [5]
In July 2021 Gilliver, Dimitri Coutya, Gemma Collis-McCann and Oliver Lam-Watson were identified as the British wheelchair fencing team who would compete at the delayed 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, [5] where he won gold in the Épée A, silver in the Team Foil and bronze in the Team Épée. [6]
Gilliver was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2022 New Year Honours for services to fencing. [7] [8]
He won a silver medal at the 2024 Paralympic Games in the Sabre A event. [9]
Alison Yu Chui-yee is a wheelchair fencer from Hong Kong. When she was 11 years old, she had bone cancer, leading to the amputation of her left leg. She began as a swimmer but switched to fencing at the age of 17. At the 2004 Summer Paralympics, she won four gold medals in both the individual and team events of épée and foil. She was the first athlete to win four gold medals in fencing in category A in 2004. At the 2008 Summer Paralympics, she represented Hong Kong again, but since the team matches were canceled, she only won one gold and one silver medal in the individual events.
Anton Datsko is a Ukrainian wheelchair fencer who won gold medal at IWAS Wheelchair Fencing Grand Prix in Eger, Hungary, won gold medal at the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and won a silver medal at the Paralympic Games in London in 2012.
Great Britain and Northern Ireland competed, under the name Great Britain, at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 September to 18 September 2016. The first places for which the team qualified were for six athletes in sailing events.
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Adrian Castro is a Polish wheelchair fencer. He represented Poland at the Summer Paralympics in 2012, 2016 and 2021 and he is a two-time medalist in the men's sabre B event.
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Panagiotis Triantafyllou is a Greek wheelchair fencer who competes in épée and sabre. He represented Greece at the Summer Paralympics in 2012, 2016 and 2021. He won the silver medal in the men's sabre B event at the 2016 Summer Paralympics. At the 2020 Summer Paralympics held in Tokyo, Japan, he won the bronze medal in the same event.
Andrii Demchuk is a Ukrainian wheelchair fencer who competes in épée, foil and sabre. He represented Ukraine at the 2016 Summer Paralympics and he won the gold medal in the men's sabre A event. He also represented Ukraine at the 2012 Summer Paralympics without winning a medal.
Gemma Collis is a British Paralympic wheelchair fencer who competed in the Paralympics in 2012, 2016 and 2020. Gemma is an 18 time World Cup medallist, and European silver medallist. She has qualified for Paris 2024. She is Chair of the International Wheelchair and Amputee Sports Federation's Wheelchair Fencing Athletes' Council and a member of the IWAS Wheelchair Fencing Gender Equity Commission.
Ksenia Ovsyannikova is a Russian world-champion wheelchair fencer and IWAS Wheelchair Executive Committee member.
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Dimitri Coutya is a British wheelchair fencer. He is the Cat B Wheelchair Fencing Champion for Individual Foil and Individual Epee at the Paris 2024 Summer Paralympics. He won a team silver, a team bronze and two individual bronze medals for Great Britain in Wheelchair fencing at the 2020 Summer Paralympics at the Makuhari Messe, Tokyo, Japan.
Maxim Andreyevich Shaburov is a Russian wheelchair fencer, who won gold in the épée team and silver in the épée A event at the 2020 Summer Paralympics.
Hakan Akkaya is a Turkish Paralympian wheelchair fencer of sport class A. He is Turkey's first international wheelchair fencer.
Tam Chik Sum is a Hong Kong wheelchair fencer. He won the silver medal in the men's épée B event at the 2012 Summer Paralympics held in London, United Kingdom. He also competed in the men's sabre B event. He also competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Trinity Lowthian is a Canadian wheelchair fencer.
Ruth Sylvie Morel is a Canadian Paralympic wheelchair fencer.
Michał Dąbrowski was a Polish wheelchair fencer who competed in both épée and sabre B. At the 2024 Summer Paralympics, he won the silver medal in the individual sabre B classification and bronze in the épée B event.