louise sauvage

Louise Sauvage is a Paralympic wheelchair racer, sports coach and the most well-known Paralympic athlete in Australia.

Sauvage was born with a spinal condition called myelomeningocele, which means she has limited control over the lower half of her body. She had to undergo 20 operations before she was ten years old, but she didn’t let that stop her from participating in sport. Sauvage started swimming when she was three, which helped to build strength in her upper body, and by the time she was eight she began to play wheelchair sports. She took up wheelchair racing competitively aged 15, and competed in her first international competition aged 17. She set a new world record on her first ever international appearance, and established herself as one-to-watch on the wheelchair racing scene. Sauvage went into the 1992 Paralympic Games as Australia’s best female wheelchair road racer, and went on to take four golds and a silver medal at the competition. When she competed at the Paralympics again four years later, she took four gold medals despite having an injured wrist. Her final Paralympic Games in Sydney in 2000 saw her take another two golds and a silver, finishing her Paralympic career with a bang.

Since retiring from competitive wheelchair racing, Sauvage has become a coach to young wheelchair athletes, setting up a foundation to help support disabled children in 2001 and coaching other professional athletes too. Her autobiography, Louise Sauvage: My Story, was published in 2002, and since then she has appeared at events such as the Sport Summit and the Charter Hall Malabar Magic Ocean Swim.