Annabel Breuer

Annabel Breuer

Annabel Breuer in Sydney, July 2012
Personal information
Nationality  Germany
Born 23 October 1992
Biberach, Swabia
Sport
Country Germany
Sport Wheelchair basketball
Disability class 1.5
Event(s) Women's team
Team SKV Ravensburg
Ulm Sabres
RSV Lahn-Dill
Achievements and titles
Paralympic finals 2012 Summer Paralympics

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).

Biography

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 spot 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 win 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] the first that Germany had won in women's wheelchair basketball in 28 years.[15] They were awarded another Silver Laurel Leaf by President Joachim Gauck in November 2012,[16] and were again named Team of the Year for 2012.[15] 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]

Achievements

Awards

Sydney July 2012
 
 

Notes

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  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Annabel Breuer – Wheelchair Basketball – Paralympic Athlete – London 2012". Official site of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 7 April 2013. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  2. ↑ "Annabel Breuer – die Rollstuhlbasketballerin" (in German). Sportschau. Archived from the original on 18 June 2013. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Wittmann, Zacharias (28 August 2012). "Annabel Breuer peilt Edelmetall an". Biberach Sport (in German) (Sportschau). Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "Annabel Breuer fährt zur WM". Stadtnachrichten Laupheim (in German). 29 October 2010.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Richter, Susanne (11 July 2009). "Deutschland wird Europameister" (MICROSOFT WORD) (in German). www.rollstuhlfechten.de. Retrieved 26 February 2013.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "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. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  8. ↑ Mader, Michael. "Ausgezeichnet: Rollstuhlfechterin Annabel Breuer bekommt Hilde-Frey-Preis". Schwaebische Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  9. ↑ "Medaillengewinner erobern die Herzen". Schwäbische Zeitung (in German). 7 October 2012. Retrieved 18 June 2013.
  10. ↑ "Annabel Breuer im Verein – Allein unter Männern" (in German). Sportschau. Archived from the original on 18 June 2013. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 11.2 "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. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 "Germany claim women's crown". Official site of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. 7 September 2012. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  14. ↑ Mannion, Tim (21 July 2012). "Victory for Rollers and Gliders as London Awaits". Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 "Rollstuhlbasketballerinnen sind Mannschaft des Jahres" (in German). HSV-Rollstuhlsport. 25 November 2012. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 "Verleihung des Silbernen Lorbeerblattes" (in German). Bundespräsidialamt. 7 November 2012. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  17. ↑ 17.0 17.1 "Eine strahlende Annabel Breuer im Ulmer Rathaus" (in German). Ulm. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 "Annabel Breuer kommt mit Doppellizenz" (in German). RSV Lahn-Dill. Retrieved 24 February 2013.
  19. ↑ "Germany Women". British Wheelchair Basketball. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  20. ↑ "World Championships - Results". International Wheelchair Basketball Federation. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  21. ↑ Germany-Women, IWBF Europe, retrieved 30 March 2014
  22. ↑ "2014 WWWBC: Germany". Wheelchair Basketball Canada. Retrieved 28 June 2014.