Sophie Christiansen CBE

A school trip to her local RDA centre (South Bucks) inspired Sophie to start riding at age six. Her first major international competition came ten years later – the 2004 Athens Paralympic Games, where she won an individual bronze medal. That same year, she was voted BBC London Disabled Athlete of the Year.

Aside from her riding career, Sophie used to compete in half-marathons and won the Windsor half-marathon in a self-propelled wheelchair race in 2002. In 2008, she was awarded the Vivien Batchelor Trophy for the most outstanding under-25 rider by the British Equestrian Writers’ Association, as well as the Raymond Brooks-Ward Memorial Trophy, which is awarded to the most promising under-25 rider in dressage, eventing, para dressage and showjumping.

After securing triple gold (team, individual and freestyle) in London 2012, Sophie went on to win nine medals for Great Britain in the London to Rio cycle, eight of them gold.

At Rio 2016 Sophie successfully defended her individual titles to secure an incredible hat-trick of gold medals, taking her career total to eight Paralympic titles.

Sophie was awarded an MBE in the 2009 New Year Honours list for services to disabled sport and an OBE in the 2013 New Year Honours list. Outside of her sporting achievements, Sophie achieved her Masters degree in Mathematics from Royal Holloway University in 2012.

Rio 2016 Paralympic Games

• Team: Gold
• Individual (la): Gold
• Freestyle (la): Gold

London 2012 Paralympic Games

• Team: Gold
• Individual: (la): Gold
• Freestyle (la): Gold

Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games

• Team: Gold
• Individual (la): Silver
• Freestyle (la): Gold

Athens 2004 Paralympic Games

• Individual (l): Bronze

2015 Senior European Championships, Deauville, France

• Team: Gold
• Individual (la):Gold
• Freestyle (la): Gold

2014 World Equestrian Games, Normandy, France

• Team: Gold
• Individual (la): Gold
• Freestyle (la): Silver