Fran Brown

After twice becoming the paraclimbing world champion (2012, 2014), Fran turned her sights to paratriathlon and quickly took the title of World and European Champion (2019). Competing in her first major events in 2016, Fran has consistently reached the podium, securing ITU and ETU Series gold, silver and bronze medals. Fran achieved a fourth place finish at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

Fran has a c4 spinal cord injury, meaning she is an incomplete tetraplegic and all four limbs are affected. Following her injury, which was sustained in an industrial accident, she returned to climbing and competed for the GB Para Climbing team for four years, becoming world champion in 2012 and 2014.

Fran enjoyed cycling and swimming as cross training for her previous sport of paraclimbing. When she retired from that, she took part in a couple of long-distance triathlons in a wheelchair for fun, and then found out about paratriathlon, which required her to run without the use of a chair-based on her classification.

She initially ran with crutches and then found braces that allowed her to run without them. She competed in the 2016 national championships and applied for British Triathlon’s Tri4Tokyo talent initiative.

Fran’s first run of major events came in 2017. She placed second at the Kitzbühel ETU Triathlon European Championships, followed by two bronze medals in the ITU at Edmonton and the ITU Grand Final at Rotterdam.