Swiss wheelchair athlete wins top award

Catherine Debrunner in action in Zurich in 2022 © Keystone / Ennio Leanza

Catherine Debrunner has won this year’s prestigious Laureus World Sportsperson with a Disability Award, the nominees for which are decided by a specialist panel from the International Paralympic Committee.

Debrunner, 28, “started 2022 as an elite force in wheelchair track sprinting and ended it as the benchmark in the marathon”, the Laureus Academy said in a statementExternal link on Monday.

“I must say I’m completely speechless to be here,” she said. “To be here with the best athletes from all over the world – Olympic athletes and Paralympic athletes – is for me, a really huge honour. When I got the invitation to come here, I was completely overwhelmed. But to win this amazing award is a huge childhood dream come true.”

Debrunner with her award on Tuesday night Keystone / Teresa Suarez

The athlete, who is also a primary school teacher, set four world records at her home event in Nottwil in May – at T53 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m. People in the T53 class have full use of their arms but have no or limited trunk function. By September she had set her sights on a debut marathon in Berlin, followed by London, seven days later – and she won both.

Debrunner, who uses a wheelchair as a result of a congenital spine condition, made her Paralympic debut at Rio 2016 and claimed two medals at Tokyo 2020, including a gold in the women’s 400m T53.

Dream

“I want to say thank you to everyone who voted for me, and I want to take the opportunity to say a big thank you to my family. They supported me from the very beginning and made this dream possible,” she said.

Debrunner follows in the tracks of Marcel Hug, who won the award last yearExternal link for the second time after 2018.

The World Sportsman of the Year award went to Lionel Messi, who was also presented with the Team Award for the Argentinian national football team at the gala in the Pavillon Vendôme in Paris. Jamaican sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce was named World Sportswoman of the Year.