FABIENNE Andre is a wheelchair racer with two European titles to her name.
She’ll be competing at the Paris Paralympics 2024, but who is the British racer? Here’s everything you need to know about Fabienne Andre.
Fabienne was born on 20 September 1996, in the UK.
She trains in London, but lives in by the sea in her hometown Brighton.
When she isn’t training for the Paralympics, she works as a physiotherapy assistant.
Fabienne has cerebral palsy, a lifelong condition that affects movement and co-ordination.
Her disability made her feel excluded from being able to compete in sport, but she eventually decided to get involved.
She told Every Body Moves: “When you have a disability sometimes there’s an emphasis on what you can’t do, or what you have to do differently to others, but in sport it’s about finding commonalities and solutions so you can.
“Working in the NHS in the physical and occupational therapy department means I’m very passionate about promoting sport and inclusivity in schools, so no one’s left sitting on the sidelines.
“Showing people there are adaptive or accessible sports out there; I truly believe there’s something out there for everyone, you just might not find it on the first try, it could be the eighth or ninth.”
Fabienne was initially interested in swimming and won three medals swimming at the Cerebral Palsy games in Barcelona in 2018.
She took an interest in athletics, because she wanted to compete in a triathlon.
In 2021, she won gold in both the 100m and the 800m T34 (a category for people with cerebral palsy) events, at the 2021 World Para Athletics European Championships.
During that same year, she was chosen to compete at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Paralympics but she did not win any medals.
In 2022, Fabienne won a bronze medal in the T34 category at the Commonwealth Games.
Fabienne will be racing in the Paris 2024 Paralympics T34 women’s final on September 1 2024.
Fans can catch the race when it starts at 18:26 UK time.
They can watch the Paralympics on Channel 4 or on Channel 4’s online streaming service.
Each sport is broken down into subcategories giving athletes the chance to compete on equal terms with those who have a similar impairment.
Here are the events:
