Louise Sauvage, Australia’s successful wheelchair athlete of Seychelles descent |09 September 2015

It is a fact that our disabled athletes have always done well, winning gold medals in international competitions.

In this context, our local sports authorities and the public, at large, might be interested to know that a certain LOUISE SAUVAGE who has excelled in international Paralympic Games, winning many gold medals and establishing world records, is the daughter of a Seychellois by the name of Maurice Sauvage, son of France Sauvage, who had emigrated to Perth in Western Australia where Louise was born in 1973.

She is often regarded as the most renowned disabled sportswoman in Australia. Yet, things were not at all easy for her. She was born with a severe congenital spinal condition. By the time she was ten years old, she had undergone 21 surgical operations. In spite of her disabilities, her Seychellois father and her English mother encouraged her to participate in sports at an early age, starting with swimming and then competing for the first time in wheelchair racing at the age of eight, with some spells of wheelchair basketball, as well, as a youngster.

In 1990, aged 17, she competed for the first time in wheelchair international competition in Assen, Holland, where she won gold in the 100m setting a new world record. In 1992, she represented Australia at the Barcelona Paralympic Games where she won gold in the 200m and 400m races and silver in the 800m. In recognition of her athletic feats, she was awarded a medal of the Order of Australia.

Her outstanding success on the international wheelchair racing circuit continued over the years, competing in the United States of America and Europe and establishing new world records all the time. She has won gold in several marathons in New Zealand, Germany, Los Angeles and Boston. She again won gold in the Paralympic Games held in Atlanta, Barcelona and Sydney and silver in the Commonwealth Games held in Manchester.

Her wheelchair racing record is most impressive.

From afar, Seychelles congratulates her very warmly. We are certainly very proud of her through her Seychellois links. She has now retired from competition and has become involved in coaching young wheelchair athletes, even establishing a foundation – The Louise Sauvage Aspire Foundation – to help support children with disabilities. The foundation provides financial help to athletes with a disability, something close to Louise's heart.

Australia's most recognisable and successful wheelchair athlete and now an elite coach, Louise once said: "I think when you have a disability people are always putting limitations on you, telling you, even in a nice way, what you can't do. My attitude to that has always been: You can't tell me that. I'll show you."

"Sport has given me so many opportunities and a lifetime of memories. I know just how difficult it is for junior and developing athletes with a disability to find the financial support to be able to compete and perform well in their chosen sport and the Foundation enables me to give just a little bit back and hopefully contribute in a small way to assisting future Australian Champions. There is no way I could have achieved the sporting success that I have without the financial support of many individuals and organisations," Louise said in 2001.

John L. Adam