page_title: Louise Sauvage
section_title: Competitive athletic career
hierarchical_section_title: Louise Sauvage / Competitive athletic career
caption_attribution_description: English: Action shot (close up) of Australian wheelchair racing athlete Louise Sauvage during the 800&#160;m T54 final at the 2000 Sydney Paralympic Games, Day 04. Sauvage won silver in this event.
context_page_description: Alix Louise Sauvage, OAM is an Australian paralympic wheelchair racer and leading coach.
  Sauvage is often regarded as the most renowned disabled sportswoman in Australia. She won nine gold and four silver medals at four Paralympic Games and eleven gold and two silver medals at three IPC Athletics World Championships. She has won four Boston Marathons, and held world records in the 1500 m, 5000 m and 4x100 m and 4x400 m relays. She was Australian Female Athlete of the Year in 1999, and International Female Wheelchair Athlete of the Year in 1999 and 2000. In 2002, her autobiography Louise Sauvage: My Story was published.
context_section_description: 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 Sauvage 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, Sauvage competed in her first international competition 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.
caption: Action shot of Sauvage on her way to winning silver in the 800 m T54 wheelchair race at the 2000 Summer Paralympics
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