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How a childhood love of speed became a professional career – without losing the joy.
"},"text":{"processed":"Catherine Debrunner remembers the precise moment when her life changed. She was eight years old, attending a multi-sport training camp for children with disabilities at the Swiss Paraplegic Centre in Nottwil. She had the chance to try a wide range of activities, but the instant she sat in a racing wheelchair, something felt different.
Perhaps the sense of speed, freedom, and fun she felt in that moment was a completely natural extension of a carefree childhood spent constantly on the move. “I always had trouble sitting still, even then,” says Catherine with a laugh, recalling all the hours spent outdoors playing with her sister and a neighbour in Switzerland’s rural canton of Thurgau.
At that point, she was still a long way off from becoming one of the world’s most successful Para athletes. Meeting her first coach, Paul Odermatt, at the training camp was the first step on that journey.
Kids my age had bicycles. I had my racing wheelchair.
After the camp, Catherine took to racing along the bike paths near her home, often with her father jogging beside her. It didn’t take long for him to realise he could no longer keep up, so he switched to a bicycle instead.
Her earliest years in Para sport were driven by simple enthusiasm and curiosity, without pressure, and with no specific goals in mind. But what started as simple enjoyment gradually evolved into something more.
Catherine got faster and faster as the years passed, and she eventually began racing competitively. She entered junior championships and quickly qualified for international circuits, with her first overseas race taking her to Ireland.
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This was all new to the young athlete: the competitions, the international atmosphere, and the opportunity to meet and compete against people from all over the world. But the real breakthrough came at the Junior World Championships in New York, where she won five gold medals. For the first time, she started dreaming of pursuing Para sport not just as a hobby, but as a career.
“That’s when everything changed,” she says, reflecting on that time. “After winning those gold medals, I knew I wanted to take things more seriously.”
But becoming a professional Para athlete wasn’t an immediate next step. Catherine faced a dilemma: she had already graduated, completed her teaching training, and worked as a teacher for several years by the time she started competing internationally. While other elite athletes could devote all their time to training and competition, she was building her teaching career alongside her sporting ambitions.
This balance worked well for a long time. But the more successful she became, the more difficult it was to manage both responsibilities. Training camps, competitions across multiple continents, and an increasingly professional sporting environment demanded a great deal from her.
So in 2018, Catherine moved to the Nottwil region to devote more time to her athletic pursuits. She gradually reduced her teaching workload as a result until, in 2022, she faced a decision that required a different kind of courage: leaving teaching behind to become a full-time professional athlete.
It was a brave step into an uncertain future. In Para sport, going professional does not automatically guarantee financial security. Athletes must find sponsors, organise travel, and manage numerous other responsibilities beyond training itself.
But Catherine knew that if she wanted to reach her potential, she’d have to fully commit herself to the sport. Today, she knows that this decision was fundamental to her success.
When Catherine talks about her achievements, she’s quick to credit the people who have supported her throughout her journey.
Naturally, she starts with her family, who supported her from the very beginning. Besides investing time and energy, they put in countless miles on Swiss roads to various training camps and competitions.
As her career grew, that circle grew to include coaches, supporters, sponsors, and partners like SALTO FOUNDATION, who support her as she builds her professional career. Together, they helped transform a sports-loving girl into a world-class athlete.
It’s why Catherine doesn’t view her medals as individual achievements, but as reflections of the teamwork behind each win.
Elite sports are always a team effort, even when only one person crosses the finish line.
For Catherine, the value of her sport goes beyond medals and records. Her passion has given her something even more valuable: perspective. Travelling around the world, meeting people from diverse cultures, and constantly challenging her own limits have been just as rewarding for her as any podium finish.
Besides making her more open-minded and globally aware, Para sport has also taught her to deal with setbacks by focusing on what she can control.
“There are so many things in life that we cannot control,” she explains. “Getting upset about them only wastes energy.”
It’s a mindset that applies both on and off the track. She’s learned, from experience, to live more in the moment and to recognise opportunities where others might see only obstacles.
Catherine isn’t thinking about retirement any time soon – her passion for wheelchair racing remains as strong as ever.
She still has plenty of goals to get excited about in the next few years, including new marathons in cities such as Sydney, Cape Town, and Shanghai, as well as the next Paralympic Games in Los Angeles.
The destinations might change, and the competition might get tougher, but Catherine says that as long as the passion stays alive, she wants to continue racing.
If there’s one piece of advice she would share with her younger self, it wouldn’t be about training harder, winning more medals, or setting faster times. It would be about holding on to her enthusiasm.
“Never lose the joy,” she insists. “The better you become, the greater the pressure. But you should never lose your love for the sport.”
Perhaps that’s her secret. Not an overwhelming desire to win, but the ability to remain inspired by the feeling that took root when she was an eight-year-old discovering the freedom of a racing wheelchair – even after all her successes. That passion is still there, and it’s what continues to carry Catherine Debrunner from one finish line to the next.
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