Marlene van Gansewinkel

Van Gansewinkel was born without her lower left leg and lower left arm.^[2]

Early in her career, Van Gansewinkel competed as a T44-classified athlete. In 2014, she competed in the women's 100 metres T44, 200 metres T44 and 400 metres T44 events at the IPC Athletics European Championships held in Swansea, Wales. She missed out on winning a medal as she finished in 4th place in all three events. At the 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships held in Doha, Qatar, she won the silver medal in the women's long jump T44 event.^[3]

Van Gansewinkel represented the Netherlands at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and she won the bronze medal in the women's long jump T44 event.^[4][5] She also competed in the women's 100 metres T44 event where she finished in 7th place.

At the beginning of 2018, World Para Athletics implemented classification changes and, as of that year, Van Gansewinkel competes as a T64-classified athlete, a class specifically for athletes with a single below the knee amputation.^[6] In that year, she won the gold medal in both the women's 100 metres T64 and women's 200 metres T64 events at the 2018 World Para Athletics European Championships held in Berlin, Germany. In the 100 metres she also set a new world record of 12.85 seconds.^[7]

In 2019, Van Gansewinkel won the silver medal in the women's 100 metres T64 event at the World Para Athletics Championships held in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. She also won the silver medal in the women's long jump T64 event.^[8] She was disqualified in the women's 200 metres T64 event for running out of lane.^[8][9]

In 2021, she won the gold medal in the women's 200 metres T64 event at the World Para Athletics European Championships held in Bydgoszcz, Poland.^[10][11] She also won the silver medal in the women's 100 metres T64 and women's long jump T64 events.^[12][13] In the long jump she set a new personal best of 5.82 metres.

Van Gansewinkel represented the Netherlands at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, Japan.^[14][15] She won the gold medal in both the women's 100 metres T64 and 200 metres T64 events.^[16][17] She also won the bronze medal in the women's long jump T64 event.^[1]

She won the silver medal in the women's long jump T64 event at the 2023 World Para Athletics Championships held in Paris, France.^[18][19] In 2024, Van Gansewinkel won three medals at the Summer Paralympics held in Paris, France.^[20] She won the silver medal in the women's 200 metres T64 event and also the silver medal in the women's long jump T64 event.^[20] Van Gansewinkel won the bronze medal in the women's 100 metres T64 event.^[20] The event was a podium sweep for the Netherlands, with Fleur Jong and Kimberly Alkemade winning the gold and silver medal respectively.^[20][21]

In 2018, she won the Dutch Paralympic Athlete of the Year award.^[22]

In 2017, Van Gansewinkel founded Team Para Atletiek together with Paralympic athlete Fleur Jong and coach Guido Bonsen which aims to help beginning and experienced para-athletes.^[23]