Cécile Saboureau
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| National team | France | |||||||||||||||||
| Born | 14 May 1983 Pithiviers, France | |||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Paratriathlon | |||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| ||||||||||||||||||
Cécile Saboureau (born 14 May 1983) is a French paratriathlete. She is a two-time French champion and PTS2 European champion in 2023.
During her youth, Saboureau was a professional rider. Beginning at age 12, she had participated in the French and European show jumping equestrian championships and won several titles.[1] In 2004, when Saboureau was 20 years old, she was the victim of a car accident that caused her to have to amputate a large part of her right leg. After two years of rehabilitation, she wore a femoral prosthesis, resumed equestrian competition and became the French disabled show jumping champion.[2][1]
Career
In July 2018, Saboureau began her paratriathlon career, registered with the Triathlon Club de Saint-Quentin en Yvelines,[3] won her first French championship in Gravelines in 2018 in the PTS2 category and in December, she was selected for the French team.[4] In 2020, she won the French paratriathlon champion title for the second time in Quiberon.[5] Between 2018 and 2021, she stood on the podium several times at the triathlon world cup stages, and rose to 9th place in the world in her discipline.[6] In addition, she took part in the European Running Clinics, the European para-athletics championships in Berlin organized by Ottobock.[1]
Though selected for the French triathlon team for the 2020 Summer Paralympics, Saboureau withdrew at the end of July 2021, following a road accident during training.[7][8] On 30 July 2021, Saboureau was in the middle of a cycling training session on a departmental road near Vichy with the French team. While she had priority, a truck cut her off and, not having seen her, her head got stuck in the dumpster and the trucker fled.[8][9] She escaped with several fractures.[10] To avoid wearing a corset for four months, she chose to have spinal surgery using spinejack cementoplasty.[10]