Irma Khetsuriani

Irma Khetsuriani () is a wheelchair fencer from Georgia.  She tried to help women and sportspeople with disabilities in Georgia. She is the first woman to be a member of the Georgia national wheelchair fencing team. She works for the Georgian Paralympic Committee as an office manager.

Personal 
Khersuriani is from Abkhazia and lived in Ochamchire until she was 7 years old.  Her family left Abkhazia during the 2008 South Ossetia war. Following the war in the region, she lived in Kutaisi and Tskhaltubo. She started the University of Kutaisi when she was 17 years old. She studied English and computers.  She got spinal disease when she was 20 years old and became disabled. Because of this, she quit university to fix her health problems.

Khersuriani  works for the Georgian Paralympic Committee as an office manager.  A friend from Tiblisi found the job for her. Her mother did not want her to take the job and move away from them to Tiblisi.

One of Khersuriani's hobbies is dancing.  Because not many people in Tiblisi do this, people stare.  One of Khersuriani's best friend is another wheelchair fencer from Georgia, Temo Dadiani also from Abkhazia. The friends met at a rehabilitation center in Ukraine.

Khersuriani helps disability sport in Georgia, talking to the government and asking them to give more money for sports in 2015.  She has also helped to improve the lives of people with disabilities in Georgian, including being part of a Persons With Disabilities Day in 2013, and participating in events with the United Nations.

Wheelchair fencing 
Khersuriani is a wheelchair fencer. She is the first female wheelchair fencer in Georgia. She trains each data with five men who make up are also members of the Georgia national wheelchair fencing team.  She was ranked for the first time as one of the best fencers in the world after having played the sport for eight months.  She is coached by Malkhaz Meskhi (Georgian:  მალხაზ მესხმა).

Khersuriani first tried the fencing when people at the Georgian Paralympic Committee asked her to.  before this, she had only watched a few movies that had fencing in them. Her first experience with the sport was bad, and she cried during the it.  It was hard for her, and she continued with the sport when she wanted to quit mostly because of her coach.

At the 2014 IWAS Wheelchair Fencing World Cup in Germany, she finished fifth.  At the  2014 Montreal Grand Prix, Khersuriani won a bronze medal in the women’s foil.  She won a bronze medal match after losing to Germany's Simone Briese-Baetke in the semi-final. Competing in the Category B women’s epee at the same competition, she lost to Ellen Geddes of the United States 9 - 15 in the quarterfinals.  Khersuriani finished fifth. At the November 2014 Polish Wheelchair Fencing Open, she won a two medals, a bronze in the Foil, and a silver in the Sabre.

At a 2015 World Cup event in Pisa, Italy, Khersuriani finished ninth.  She lost in the group stage and did not go further in the competition.  One of her losses was  to Hong Kong's Zhongwan Ping by a score of 15 - 7. At the 2015 IWAS World Championships in Eger, Hungary in August, she won a silver medal in the women’s sabre B.  She lost to Ukraine's Tetiana Pozdniak by a score of 13-15 in the gold medal match.  She made the final after beating Poland's Patrycja Hareza.  After Hungary, she was ranked as  the best wheelchair fencer in the world for the first time.  In October 2015, she won gold at a World Cup in Paris in the Senior Women’s Sabre B event after beating Patrycja Hareza of Poland in the final by a score of 15 - 9.  In  making the finals, she beat wheelchair fencers from France, Greece, the United Kingdom, Poland and Ukraine. Unlike most competitors at the competition, she competed in all three wheelchair fencing disciplines: Sabre, Foil and Épée.

References 

Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Abkhazia
Fencers
Sportspeople from Georgia (country)