Sophie Christiansen
One of three golds at Rio in 2016
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| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Sophie Margaret Christiansen |
| Born |
14 November 1987 Ascot, Bracknell Forest, Berkshire, England |
| Sport | |
| Country |
 United Kingdom
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| Sport | Equestrian |
| Achievements and titles | |
| Paralympic finals | 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016 |
| Highest world ranking | 1 |
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Medal record
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Sophie Margaret Christiansen, CBE (born 14 November 1987) is an English equestrian who has competed in three successive Paralympic Games, winning numerous medals. In 2012 and 2016 she gained three gold medals at the paralympics.
Christiansen was born two months prematurely with cerebral palsy and suffered from other health problems including jaundice, blood poisoning, a heart attack and a collapsed lung. At the age of six she began horse riding as a form of physiotherapy at her local Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) group. She was educated at Charters School in Sunningdale, and left in 2006 to study for a master's degree in mathematics at Royal Holloway, University of London.
She first competed at the Paralympics aged 16 and was the youngest athlete for Great Britain at the 2004 Summer Paralympics. She contested both the freestyle and championship dressage grade I, the classification grade for severely disabled athletes. In the freestyle event Christiansen finished fourth with the gold medal being won by British teammate Lee Pearson. The championship grade I dressage saw Christiansen win her first Paralympic medal. Competing with her horse Hotstuff, she took bronze with gold again being won by Pearson. She was named BBC London Disabled Athlete of the Year for 2004.
Following her success in Athens Christiansen was selected to be part of the British team at the 2005 European Championships held in Hungary where she won three gold medals. At the World Championships in 2007 she won a gold medal in the freestyle dressage and a bronze medal in the individual dressage event.
In 2008 she represented Great Britain at the Summer Paralympics. The equestrian events were not held in the host city Beijing but instead took place at the Olympic Equestrian Centre in Hong Kong. Competing in her second Games she again contested the freestyle and championship dressage events but was also part of the British quartet in the team dressage. On her horse Lambrusco she won an individual gold medal in the freestyle and silver in the championship dressage. In the team open Christiansen, with teammates Lee Pearson, Anne Dunham and Simon Laurens won her second Paralympic gold medal. This meant that Great Britain has won a gold medal in this event at four consecutive Games.
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