Louise Sauvage - Competitive Athletic Career

Competitive Athletic Career

If I had to pick my greatest moment, it would be winning the demonstration event at the 2000 Games and coming back later that evening and having my medal presented to me by Juan Antonio Samaranch, who was head of the IOC. I was on the dais in the No.1 position, and the flag was being raised and the anthem was being played because you're No.1. You have got 110,000 people singing the anthem with you, it's just unbelievable. There was no time to be emotional, I just couldn't stop smiling, it was just awesome.

From the ages of 10 to 13, Sauvage represented Western Australia in the national swim championships. She was forced to retire from swimming when she turned 14, because of surgery.

When Louise first started competing in wheelchair racing, the chairs all had four wheels and were similar to the chairs that they used off the track. The chairs did not have any form of steering. The front wheels were smaller than the back wheels, and when at high speed, they were prone to wobbling. By 1997, racing wheelchairs had basically finished undergoing massive changes to improve them.

In 1990, she competed in her first international competition, the IPC Athletics World Championships in Athletics in Assen, Holland, where she won gold in the 100 m setting a new world record. She also won the 200 m race but was disqualified for moving out of her lane. At the Stoke Mandeville Games in England the same year, Sauvage took gold in the 100 m, 200 m, 400 m, and two relays.

In 1992, she represented Australia at the Barcelona Paralympic Games, where she won two golds in the 200 m and 400 m and a silver in the 800 m. In recognition of her athletic feats she was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia. Sauvage was in danger of not going to the 1992 Paralympics because of funding issues for the Australian Paralympic Federation. The Federation made an emergency appeal for funding from the public in order to cover the cost of transporting the Australian team to Barcelona. The Federation found funding through a variety of small donations that allowed Sauvage and other Australian athletes to compete.

Prior to the start of the 1992 Summer Paralympics, Sauvage held Australian records for the 100 m, 200 m, 800 m, 1500 m and marathon in women's wheelchair racing events. She was being marketed by the Australian Paralympic Federation as Australia's top female wheelchair road racer.

1993 was her first year on the international wheelchair racing circuit, competing in the US and Europe. It was also the year that she got her first kneeling wheelchair. The pinnacle being the world-famous Boston Marathon where she recorded her first victory, in the women's wheelchair division, in 1997, breaking the stranglehold of the 'Queen of Boston', US racer Jean Driscoll. Sauvage went on to win a further three Boston titles in 1998, 1999 and 2001. Louise has also competed at marathons held in Los Angeles and Honolulu. She has won the Los Angeles Marathon, Honolulu Marathon and Berlin Marathon.

From 1993 to 2000, Sauvage won every IAAF wheelchair demonstration event. In that same period, she also won the demonstration events for wheelchair racing in the 800 meter race at the Olympic games. The 800 meter event does not require that athletes stay in their lanes after the first turn. For this reason, athletes like Sauvage are required to wear helmets when racing. In 2000, Sauvage won the Olympic demonstration event and was expected to win the Paralympic gold. She was upset by Canadian Chantal Petitclerc. The Australian delegation appealed the result, claiming the race was not fair because another racer, Ireland's Patrice Dockery, was disqualified for leaving her lane too early. The appeal was rejected, because Dockery was too far behind the front runners to impact the results. Sport academics who research the Paralympic Games consider this protest to be pivotal, because it shows the passion of athletes to win and the extent that sports people will go to claim gold. It also highlighted that the rivalries in the sport were real. Petitclerc said of her rivalry with Sauvage that "I dream more about Louise than I do my boyfriend." In 2002, Petitclerc beat Sauvage again at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, where the 800 meter event was a full medal event at the games for the first time. It was only the second time that Sauvage had lost to Petitclerc.

Sauvage won gold medals at the IAAF World Athletics Championships in 1993, 1995, 1997 and 2001.

In 1995, Sauvage won the Gasparilla 15 km road race. The event was held in Florida. That same year, she came in second at the Los Angeles Marathon and second at the Lilac Bloomsday 12k. At the Boston Marathon, Sauvage suffered a tire puncture. She finished fourth.

In January 1996, Sauvage won the women's wheelchair event at the OzDay 10k International Road Race, an event that is staged in Sydney's Rocks District.

In February 1996, Sauvage won the women's wheelchair event at the Gasparilla 15k Road Race, held in Tampa, Florida.

In 1996, Sauvage won the Beppu-Ōita Marathon. In 1997, she won the Summer Down Under race in Sydney, the International Wheelchair Road & Track Series sprint, distance and overall categories, the Newcastle Bicentennial 15K Road Road Race in Newcastle, the Waitangi Day Road Race in New Zealand, the Los Angeles Marathon, the Boston Marathon, the Atrium Classic race in Darwin, the Piedmont 10 Mile Criterium race in the United States, the Americas Series, USA/Canda, the Peachtree 10K in the United States, the IAAF World Athletics Championships in the 800 m event in Athens, the World 10K Championship Race in the United States, and the Berlin Marathon in Germany.

Sauvage qualified for the 1996 Summer Paralympics in June in the exhibition wheelchair track events in the 800 ms.

I think I was just so pumped up from the 5000 m, and warm enough, and hearing the anthem for Dave Evans – that was fantastic to hear that in the background.

In 1996, Sauvage won the 400 m, 800 m, 1500 m and 5000 m events at the 1996 Summer Paralympics. She won these while having an injured wrist. She set world records in the 1500 m and 5000 m events during these games. Sauvage won the 5000 m and the 400 m golds only an hour apart.

At the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney, she lit the cauldron during the opening ceremonies for the games. In 2004, Sauvage carried the Australian flag into the stadium at the 2004 Summer Paralympics.