 Graf as flag bearer for Switzerland at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Parade of Nations | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| National team | Swiss | |||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Country | Switzerland | |||||||||||||||||||
| Disability class | T54 | |||||||||||||||||||
| Event(s) | Marathon | |||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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| Updated on 16 September 2016. | ||||||||||||||||||||
Sandra Graf (born 9 December 1969) [1] is a Swiss wheelchair athlete. Graf competes in wheelchair races of a variety of distances.
Graf has twice put her career on hold to have children. In 2003 a lung embolism set back her training and kept her from competing in the marathon and 5,000-meter distances, although she still competed in the 800- and 1,500-meter races. [2]
In 2008, during her first London Marathon wheelchair race, she both won the race over American Amanda McGrory and Briton Shelly Woods and set a new course record of 1:48:04. [3] She has competed in five consecutive Summer Paralympics from 2000 to 2016, and won bronze medals in the marathon in 2008 and 2012. In 2012, she also won the road time trial H3 cycling event, in which she participated using a handcycle. [4]
The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the Games of the Paralympiad, is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of physical disabilities. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, are held almost immediately following the respective Olympic Games. All Paralympic Games are governed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
Edith Wolf is a Swiss former wheelchair racer, who competed in the T54 classification. Wolf competed at a range of distances from 400m to marathon length events and is a multiple World and Paralympic Games winner. Wolf has also eight major marathon titles to her name having won the women's wheelchair race at the Berlin Marathon (2011), Boston Marathon and New York Marathon.
Christie Dawes is an Australian Paralympic wheelchair racing athlete. She has won three medals in athletics at seven Paralympics from 1996 to 2021.
Marla Lee Runyan is an American track and field athlete, road runner and marathon runner who is legally blind. She is a three-time national champion in the women's 5000 metres.
Rochelle "Shelly" Woods is an elite British Paralympic athlete from the suburb of Layton in Blackpool, Lancashire. Woods is a T54 athlete who competes as a wheelchair racer in medium and long-distance events. She has competed in two Paralympic Games, Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012, where she won three medals. She is also a world-class marathon athlete, winning the women's elite wheelchair race at the 2007 and 2012 London Marathon.
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.
Wakako Tsuchida is an athlete from Tokyo, Japan, who is an accomplished women's wheelchair marathoner, ice sledge racer and triathlete. She was the first professional wheelchair athlete from Japan and the first Japanese athlete to win gold medals in both the Summer and Winter Paralympics. She has paraplegia.
Jean Driscoll is an American wheelchair racer. She won the women's wheelchair division of the Boston Marathon eight times, more than any other female athlete in any division. Her wins in Boston included seven consecutive first-place finishes from 1990 to 1996. Driscoll participated in four Summer Paralympic Games, winning a total of five gold, three silver, and four bronze medals in events ranging from 200 meters to the marathon.
Tatyana McFadden is an American Paralympic athlete of Russian descent competing in the category T54. McFadden has won twenty Paralympic medals in multiple Summer Paralympic Games.
David Holding is a British wheelchair athlete. Holding was born with spina bifida, a birth defect that affects the spinal cord, and has been in a wheelchair since childhood. An accountant by training, he competes as an amateur athlete in wheelchair races of all distances. He has won a number of races, but is most well known for being a four-time winner of the London Marathon and the former world record holder, and a Paralympic Games gold medal winner in the 100 meter wheelchair race.
Francesca Porcellato is an Italian disabled sportsperson who competed at international level in three different sports. Porcellato began her sporting career as a wheelchair racer competing in six Summer Paralympics before switching to Para Cross-country skiing where she won gold at the 2010 Winter Paralympics in the 1 km sprint. In 2015, she became six-time UCI Para-cycling World champion.
Heinz Frei is a Swiss wheelchair athlete. Frei has had a long career of racing, winning the London Marathon wheelchair race three times, and earning five medals at the 2003 European games at the age of 45. He has earned 15 gold medals at the summer and winter Paralympics and is a current world record holder in the marathon wheelchair race. He competed in athletics at every Summer Paralympic Games from 1984 to 2008, and at the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Summer Olympics he competed in cycling, using a handcycle. At the Winter Paralympics, he competed in cross-country sit-skiing between 1984 and 2006 and in the biathlon in 1994.
Amanda McGrory is an American wheelchair athlete.
Marcel Eric Hug is a Paralympian 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 800 m and marathon, and two silvers medals, in the 1500m and 5000m.
Jake Lappin is an Australian para-athlete competing as a wheelchair racer. He represented Australia at the London 2012 Summer Paralympics and at the 2016 Rio Paralympics.
Roger Puigbò i Verdaguer is a track and field athlete from Spain. He has a disability and uses a wheelchair. He is a long-distance athlete, competing in wheelchair marathons around the world. Puigbo competed at the 2004 Summer Paralympics, 2008 Summer Paralympics, and 2012 Summer Paralympics.
El Amin Chentouf, is a Moroccan para-athlete running in T12 distance races. He has represented his country at three Summer Paralympics winning gold medals at each competition. Outside the Paralympics, Chentouf is also a world series Marathon champion, winning the T12/13 event at three London Marathons.
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. She also represented the United States at the 2012 Summer Paralympics and at the 2016 Summer Paralympics.
Ebbe Blichfeldt is a Danish wheelchair racer living in Switzerland who has competed internationally in the Paralympic Games and other parathletic events, in the T54 classification for athletes with spinal cord injuries who compete in wheelchairs. He also works as an occupational therapist.
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 12.5km seated event.
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