Annabel Breuer

Annabel Breuer (born 23 October 1992) is German a wheelchair fencer and 1.5 point wheelchair basketball player. She has played for SKV Ravensburg and Sabres Ulm in the German wheelchair basketball league. In December 2012 she was contracted to play for first division club RSV Lahn-Dill as well as Sabres Ulm. She has also played the national team, with which she won two European titles, was runner-up at 2010 World Championships, and won a gold medal at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. After the London Games, President Joachim Gauck awarded the team Germany's highest sporting honour, the Silbernes Lorbeerblatt (Silver Laurel Leaf).

Biography Annabel Breuer was born on 23 October 1992. She lives with her three siblings, her parents and her dog in Birkenhardt, a small town in Swabia roughly halfway between Lake Constance and Ulm. She became a paraplegic as a result of an automotive accident when she was a child. As a result, the German Sports Foundation named 16-year-old Breuer as its Junior Sportsman of the Year for 2009 in Disability Sport. She competed in the 2010 World Championships in Paris, but was placed fifth and did not medal. She was awarded the Hilde Frey Prize in 2011, and said that her goal was to be at the 2012 Summer Paralympic Games in London.

Breuer attended the Paralympics in London, but as a wheelchair basketball player rather than as a fencer. She was introduced to the sport by a friend, and spotted by a national trainer. Breuer played for Sabines Ulm, where she was the only woman on a mixed gender side. She is classified as a 1.5 point player, but women get a 1.5 point bonus when playing on a mixed team, making her in effect a zero-point player. Her classification, along with her high technical acumen, means that she is a valuable asset on any team.

Breuer was part of the German national team which won gold at the 2011 European Championships in Nazareth, Israel, defeating the Netherlands in the final, 48–42. In June 2012 she was named as one of the team that competed at the 2012 Summer Paralympic Games in London. They defeated the Australians 44–58 in front of a crowd of over 12,000 at the North Greenwich Arena to win the gold medal, They were awarded another Silver Laurel Leaf by President Joachim Gauck in November 2012, In December 2012, it was announced that in addition to playing for second division Sabres Ulm, she would also play for five-time Champions League winning first division club RSV Lahn-Dill in 2013. The German team claimed silver at the 2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2011: Gold European Championships (Nazareth, Israel) 2014: Silver at the World Championships (Toronto, Canada) 2015: Gold at the European Championships (Worcester, England) 2016: Silver at the Paralympic Games (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

Awards 2009: Junior Sportsman of the Year in Disability Sport 2012: Silver Laurel Leaf 2012: Entry in the Golden Book of the city of Ulm 2015: Gold at the European Championships (Worcester, England)