Annabel Breuer (born 23 October 1992) is a wheelchair fencer and 1.5 point wheelchair basketball player. She has played for SKV Ravensburg and Sabres Ulm in the German wheelchair basketball league. In December 2012 she was contracted to play for first division club RSV Lahn-Dill as well as Sabres Ulm. She has also played the national team, with which she won two European titles, was runner-up at 2010 World Championships, and won a gold medal at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. After the London Games, President Joachim Gauck awarded the team Germany's highest sporting honour, the Silbernes Lorbeerblatt (Silver Laurel Leaf).

Annabel Breuer
Annabel Breuer in Sydney, July 2012
Personal information
Nationality Germany
Born (1992-10-23) 23 October 1992 (age 32)
Biberach, Swabia
Sport
CountryGermany
SportWheelchair basketball
Disability class1.5
EventWomen's team
TeamSKV Ravensburg
Ulm Sabres
RSV Lahn-Dill
Achievements and titles
Paralympic finals2012 Paralympics, 2016 Paralympics
Medal record
Women's wheelchair basketball
Representing  Germany
Paralympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2012 London Team
Silver medal – second place 2016 Rio de Janeiro Team
World Championship
Silver medal – second place 2010 Birmingham Team
Silver medal – second place 2014 Toronto Team
Bronze medal – third place 2018 Hamburg Team

Biography

edit

Annabel Breuer was born on 23 October 1992.[1] She lives with her three siblings, her parents and her dog in Birkenhardt, a small town in Swabia roughly halfway between Lake Constance and Ulm.[2] She became a paraplegic as a result of an automotive accident when she was a child.[3]

Breuer started playing wheelchair fencing recreationally. She won silver at the 2006 Wheelchair Fencing World Cup in Turin at the age of 13.[4] but was unable to participate in the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing due to surgery on her spinal cord.[3] At the 2009 European Championships in Warsaw she won gold with the German epee team, and silver and bronze in the singles.[4][5] As a result, the German Sports Foundation named 16-year-old Breuer as its Junior Sportsman of the Year for 2009 in Disability Sport.[6] She competed in the 2010 World Championships in Paris, but was placed fifth and did not medal.[7] She was awarded the Hilde Frey Prize in 2011, and said that her goal was to be at the 2012 Summer Paralympic Games in London.[8]

Breuer attended the Paralympics in London, but as a wheelchair basketball player rather than as a fencer.[3] She was introduced to the sport by a friend, and spotted by a national trainer.[9] Breuer played for Sabines Ulm, where she was the only woman on a mixed gender side. She is classified as a 1.5 point player, but women get a 1.5 point bonus when playing on a mixed team, making her in effect a zero-point player. Her classification, along with her high technical acumen, means that she is a valuable asset on any team.[10]

Breuer was part of the German national team which won gold at the 2011 European Championships in Nazareth, Israel, defeating the Netherlands in the final, 48–42.[11][12] In June 2012 she was named as one of the team that competed at the 2012 Summer Paralympic Games in London.[11] In the Gold Medal match, the team faced the Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team,[13] a team that had defeated them 48–46 in Sydney just a few months before.[14] They defeated the Australians 44–58 in front of a crowd of over 12,000 at the North Greenwich Arena to win the gold medal,[13] They were awarded another Silver Laurel Leaf by President Joachim Gauck in November 2012,[15] and were again named Team of the Year for 2012.[16] In a ceremony in Ulm, Breuer was congratulated by the Lord Mayor, Ivo Gönner, and her name was entered in the Golden Book of the city.[17] In December 2012, it was announced that in addition to playing for second division Sabres Ulm, she would also play for five-time Champions League winning first division club RSV Lahn-Dill in 2013.[18]

As of February 2013, due to the constant interruptions to her education due to training and competitions,[3] Breuer, who speaks English, French, German and Spanish,[1] had yet to complete her final high school examinations at Matthias Erzberger school in Biberach.[18] The German team claimed silver at the 2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship in Toronto, Ontario, Canada,[19] and beat the Netherlands in the 2015 European Championships, to claim its tenth European title.[20] At the 2016 Paralympic Games, it won silver after losing the final to the United States.[21]

Achievements

edit
  • 2006: Silver Wheelchair Fencing World Cup (Turin, Italy)[4]
  • 2009: Gold (team), Silver and Bronze (individual) European Championships (Warsaw, Poland)[4][5]
  • 2010: Silver World Championships (Birmingham, Great Britain)[22][23]
  • 2011: Gold European Championships (Nazareth, Israel)[11]
  • 2012: Gold Paralympic Games (London, England)[13]
  • 2013: Silver European Championships (Frankfurt, Germany)[24]
  • 2014: Silver at the World Championships (Toronto, Canada)[19]
  • 2015: Gold at the European Championships (Worcester, England)[20]
  • 2016: Silver at the Paralympic Games (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)[21][25]

Awards

edit
  • 2009: Junior Sportsman of the Year in Disability Sport[6]
  • 2012: Team of the Year[16]
  • 2012: Silver Laurel Leaf[15]
  • 2012: Entry in the Golden Book of the city of Ulm[17]
  • 2015: Gold at the European Championships (Worcester, England)[20]

References

edit
  1. ^ a b "Annabel Breuer – Wheelchair Basketball – Paralympic Athlete – London 2012". Official site of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 26 May 2013. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  2. ^ "Annabel Breuer – die Rollstuhlbasketballerin" (in German). Sportschau. Archived from the original on 21 June 2012. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  3. ^ a b c d Wittmann, Zacharias (28 August 2012). "Annabel Breuer peilt Edelmetall an". Biberach Sport (in German). Sportschau. Archived from the original on 25 April 2014. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  4. ^ a b c d "Annabel Breuer fährt zur WM". Stadtnachrichten Laupheim (in German). 29 October 2010. Archived from the original on 17 March 2020. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  5. ^ a b Richter, Susanne (27 July 2009). "Medaillenregen bei der Europameisterschaft in Warschau/Polen" (PDF) (in German). rollstuhlfechten.de. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 June 2015. Retrieved 27 June 2015.
  6. ^ a b "Die Stiftung Deutsche Sporthilfe feierte am 16. Oktober in der Handelskammer Hamburg das "Fest der Begegnung"". Württemberger Fechterbund (in German). Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  7. ^ "Meinhardt Earns Bronze at Worlds". Team USA. Archived from the original on 10 June 2012. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  8. ^ Mader, Michael. "Ausgezeichnet: Rollstuhlfechterin Annabel Breuer bekommt Hilde-Frey-Preis". Schwaebische Zeitung (in German). Archived from the original on 12 April 2013. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  9. ^ "Medaillengewinner erobern die Herzen". Schwäbische Zeitung (in German). 7 October 2012. Archived from the original on 20 November 2012. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
  10. ^ "Annabel Breuer im Verein – Allein unter Männern" (in German). Sportschau. Archived from the original on 19 July 2012. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  11. ^ a b c "Nu Nguyen-Thi darf nicht mit: Holger Glinicki benennt Kader für die Paralympics". Rolling Planet (in German). 12 June 2012. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  12. ^ Kayser, Sebastian (6 September 2012). "Mit Schweden-Happen um Gold". Bild (in German). Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  13. ^ a b c "Germany claim women's crown". Official site of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. 7 September 2012. Archived from the original on 30 April 2013. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  14. ^ Mannion, Tim (21 July 2012). "Victory for Rollers and Gliders as London Awaits". Archived from the original on 28 April 2013. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  15. ^ a b "Verleihung des Silbernen Lorbeerblattes" (in German). Bundespräsidialamt. 7 November 2012. Archived from the original on 19 November 2018. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  16. ^ a b "Rollstuhlbasketballerinnen sind Mannschaft des Jahres" (in German). HSV-Rollstuhlsport. 26 November 2012. Archived from the original on 27 June 2015. Retrieved 27 June 2015.
  17. ^ a b "Eine strahlende Annabel Breuer im Ulmer Rathaus" (in German). Ulm. Archived from the original on 10 January 2013. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  18. ^ a b "Annabel Breuer kommt mit Doppellizenz" (in German). RSV Lahn-Dill. Archived from the original on 14 May 2014. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  19. ^ a b "2014 WWWBC: Germany". Wheelchair Basketball Canada. Archived from the original on 2 February 2015. Retrieved 28 June 2014.
  20. ^ a b c "Germany earn 10th women's European Wheelchair Basketball Championship title as hosts Britain win men's gold". Inside the Games. 6 September 2015. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  21. ^ a b "USA clinch women's basketball gold". International Paralympic Committee. 16 September 2016. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
  22. ^ "Germany Women". British Wheelchair Basketball. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  23. ^ "World Championships – Results". International Wheelchair Basketball Federation. Archived from the original on 9 July 2014. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  24. ^ "Rollstuhlbasketball-EM: Deutsche Damen nach über einem Jahrzehnt entthront". Rolling Planet (in German). 6 July 2013. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
  25. ^ "Paralympic – Wheelchair Basketball Women Germany". Rio 2016. Archived from the original on 23 September 2016. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
edit