Paralympics: Will Catherine Debrunner win 6 medals in Paris?

In recent weeks, there has been practically no escape from her: Catherine Debrunner has been extremely visible on the large billboards and video screens at transport hubs such as Kloten Airport and Zurich Central Station. The Thurgau native was part of the campaign of one of her partners, a leading global credit card company that also belongs to the exclusive circle of Olympic and Paralympic sponsors. “A lot of people have written to me to say they have seen me,” says Debrunner with a smile, “that’s really special.”

She has now seen herself too – logically, since she spends a lot of time at airports. And recently: She got the finishing touches for her third Paralympics first in the Netherlands, where her coach is based, and finally in the last training camp in Portugal, from where she traveled directly to Paris on Monday. “It’s very good for me when I can train, eat and sleep in one place with people who are in the same bubble.”

With Lionel Messi on stage

Three years ago, she won her first two Paralympic medals in Tokyo, gold in her favorite discipline, the 400 m, and bronze in the 800 m. But that wasn’t enough to change her status at the time, she says, and her current sponsorship portfolio only developed afterwards: “No one was knocking on my door. A mix of my successes and a lot of initiative was decisive afterwards.” She has also been working with a manager for some time.

In terms of sport, there is no way around Debrunner, who has been paraplegic since birth due to a tumor on her spine (coccygeal teratoma). At the 2023 World Championships in Paris, she won four gold medals and one silver medal, and she also holds world records over seven distances from 100 m to the marathon. She has already been awarded a Laureus Award for her successes; she was on stage with Lionel Messi at the ceremony.

A mammoth program awaits her at the Paralympics – a maximum of eleven races in eight days. Only those who manage to concentrate on the essentials can celebrate maximum success. It is a realization that the 29-year-old has now also come to: “I have learned to say no. For a long time I didn’t dare to do that, I always thought it was rude. Being selfish often has negative connotations, but actually it is more about standing up for yourself so that you can achieve the best performance in the competition.”

The marathon has changed Debrunner

She wants to create additional time for herself by “isolating herself” from social media, among other things. This way she wants to avoid a complete sensory overload. “Otherwise, you already have a lot of adrenaline in the evening. If you’re then sitting on your cell phone or trying to process all the impressions, at some point you won’t be able to handle it anymore.”

This egoism, which many other athletes were born with, is not in Catherine Debrunner’s DNA. But since she started running the marathon, she has made great progress in this regard. And that is by no means a coincidence, she stresses: “The marathon is a huge process, and I have changed a lot since I started running this distance. I had to get out of my comfort zone very often. Because I thought I was afraid of this bend, the road surface was extremely dangerous or the descents were steep. Or because I thought I couldn’t go on.”

The professional athlete is trained by Arno Mul, the Dutch head coach who looks after a number of top athletes from different nations. This partnership has also had a positive influence on her personal development, says Debrunner. “I work a lot with someone who lives far away, and as a result I have had to become much more independent. That has also given me self-confidence, which I show in the race. And my opponents see that too.”

On Friday she completed the compulsory exercise of the 5000 m preliminary round, and on Saturday at 10.40 am the final follows. The first of six possible. Debrunner remains neutral when it comes to external expectations: “I just want to show what I showed in training recently – and that is very good.” She knows that if she succeeds in doing that, she will continue to be in the public eye.

Found an error? Report it now.

5 Comments