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 De Paepe at the 2024 Summer Paralympics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nationality | Belgian | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 3 January 1985 Belgium | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Para swimming Paratriathlon | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | 3T Triathlon Tenacity Team | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Wim De Paepe (born 1 January 1985) is a Belgian Paralympic swimmer and triathlete. [1] He competes in classification PTS2. [2]
De Paepe grew up on a farm, specializing the production of strawberries, in the country-side of Bois-de-Nivelles in Hainaut Province, Belgium, in a family of 5, with a brother and a sister. He lost a part of his right leg when he was ten years old in an accident with a farmer's equipment, as a result of which he now wears a prosthetic leg. [3] [2] Sports having always played an important part in his and his family member's lives, he wanted to continue to practice a sport and as his sister was already a swimmer, he took up swimming himself, partly because it did not require any specific equipment partly because it allowed him to learn to live with his new body. [3] [4]
De Paepe is married and has three sons. [1] He works as a physiotherapist and osteopath. [3]
De Paepe started doing international para swimming competitions from around the age of 15. [3]
He participated in the 2002, 2006 and 2010 IPC Swimming World Championships in multiple events, ranging from 50 to 400 metres freestyle S9 over 100 metres backstroke S9 to 200 metres individual medley SM9 and even 5,000 metres Open Water S10, with an 8th place in the 100 metres Freestyle S9 at the 2002 IPC Swimming World Championships in Mar del Plata, Argentina, as his best result. [5]
He represented Belgium at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece finishing 6th in the final of the men's 400 metres freestyle S9. [6]
After a long hiatus from competition sports, and when COVID-19 forced him to slow down at work, he turned to sports and after he cycled up the Mount Ventoux in France, [7] he decided to join the "Royal Cercle Athlétique du Brabant Wallon" [8] setting his mind to para triathlon. [3] With success. At his very first European Triathlon Para Championships, in 2021 in Valencia, Spain, he wins the bronze medal. [9] [10] He follows that up in December of that year with another bronze medal, this time at the World Triathlon Para Championships in Abu Dhabi. [11] [12]
Nearly a year later to the day, he wins another bronze medal at the 2022 World Triathlon Para Championships again in Abu Dhabi. [13] [14]
Twenty years after participating as a swimmer in the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, Greece, he qualified as a triathlete for the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris, France. [15] [16] In Paris, he finished 5th, one place better than in 2024. [17]
Sandra "Sandy" Dukat is an American Paralympic athlete. Born with proximal femoral focal deficiency, she had her right leg amputated above the knee at the age of four. She has competed internationally in alpine skiing, swimming and triathlon. As of February 2013, she holds the marathon world record for above-knee amputee women.
Matthew John Cowdrey is an Australian politician and Paralympic swimmer. He presently holds numerous world records. He has a congenital amputation of his left arm; it stops just below the elbow. Cowdrey competed at the 2004 Paralympic Games, 2006 Commonwealth Games, 2008 Paralympic Games, 2010 Commonwealth Games, and the 2012 Paralympic Games. After the 2012 London Games, he is the most successful Australian Paralympian, having won thirteen Paralympic gold medals and twenty three Paralympic medals in total. On 10 February 2015, Cowdrey announced his retirement from swimming.
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Ellie Victoria Cole, is an Australian retired Paralympic swimmer and wheelchair basketball player. After having her leg amputated due to cancer, she trained in swimming as part of her rehabilitation program and progressed more rapidly than instructors had predicted. She began competitive swimming in 2003 and first competed internationally at the 2006 IPC Swimming World Championships, where she won a silver medal. Since then, she has won medals in the Pan Pacific Swimming Championships, the Commonwealth Games, the Paralympic Games, the IPC Swimming World Championships, and various national championships.
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Lauren Parker is an Australian para-triathlete and para-cyclist. She won a silver medal at the 2020 Summer Paralympics and gold medal at the 2024 Summer Paralympics.
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Sabrina Duchesne is a Canadian Paralympic swimmer who won a bronze medal in the Women's 34pts 4x100m relay event at the 2020 Summer Paralympics. She competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics, 2018 Pan Pacific Para Swimming Championships, and 2019 World Para Swimming Championships.
The 2022 World Triathlon Championship Series was the 14th season of the World Triathlon Championship Series, the top level international series for triathlon, since its establishment in 2009, and crowned the 34th official World Triathlon Champion for both men and women since the first was crowned in 1989.
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Wim De Paepe at World Triathlon
