Louise Sauvage

Louise Sauvage

Personal information
Full name	Alix Louise Sauvage
Nationality	Australia
Born	(1973-09-18) 18 September 1973 (age 43) Perth, Western Australia
Medal record Women's wheelchair racing Paralympic Games 1992 Barcelona 100 m 1992 Barcelona 200 m 1992 Barcelona 400 m 1996 Atlanta 400 m 1996 Atlanta 800 m 1996 Atlanta 1500 m 1996 Atlanta 5000 m 2000 Sydney 5000 m 2000 Sydney 1500 m 1992 Barcelona 800 m 2000 Sydney 800 m 2004 Athens 400 m 2004 Athens 800 m Olympic Games (demonstration sport) 1st 1996 Atlanta 800 m 1st 2000 Sydney 800 m 3rd 2004 Athens 800 m Commonwealth Games 2002 Manchester 800 m IAAF World Athletics Championships 1993 Women's wheelchair 1995 Women's wheelchair 1997 800 m 2001 Women's wheelchair Boston Marathon 1997 Women's wheelchair 1998 Women's wheelchair 1999 Women's wheelchair 2001 Women's wheelchair Los Angeles Marathon 1997 Women's wheelchair 1995 Women's wheelchair Beppu-Ōita Marathon 1996 Women's wheelchair Berlin Marathon 1997 Women's wheelchair

Alix Louise Sauvage, OAM (born 18 September 1973) is an Australian paralympic wheelchair racer.

Sauvage is often regarded as the most renowned disabled sportswoman in Australia. She won two gold medals and a silver medal at the 2000 Sydney Paralympic games in front of a home crowd. At the 2004 Olympic Games, she finished 3rd in the demonstration sport of Women's 1500 m wheelchair. She participated in the 2004 Summer Paralympics, where she took silver in both the 400 metre and 800 metre races. She has won four Boston Marathons, and holds world records in the 1500  m, 5000  m and 4x100  m and 4x400  m relays. She was Australian Female Athlete of the Year in 1999, and International Female Wheelchair Athlete of the Year in 1999 and 2000.

When I first started off I was in the human interest pages of the paper – the fact that I did a sport and the article was about my sport didn't matter – I had a disability and it was warm and fuzzy. It wasn't until I made it to where everyone else was, in the sports pages, where any elite athlete deserves to be, that I thought, 'OK they're taking me seriously now, this is good'.

Sauvage, whose father is from the Seychelles and mother is from Leicestershire, was born with a severe congenital spinal condition called myelomeningocele, which inhibits the function of the lower half of the body, giving limited control over the legs. In 1976 she was Perth's Telethon Child as part of a Channel 7 fund-raiser for children with disabilities. She used calipers to help walk until she received her first wheelchair. Her myelomeningocele required her to have 21 surgical operations by the time she was ten years old. As a preteen, Sauvage suffered scoliosis, and at 14, she had surgery to fix a curvature in her spine, using steel rods. The operation was only partially successful, and as an adult, she still has a curve of roughly 49 degrees. She has not had any subsequent surgery to fix the curve in her spine.

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