Marit Ruth

Marit Sundin (née Marit Ruth; born in 1973) is a Swedish former Paralympic sit-skier and gold medalist in the 1992 Winter Paralympics. She created a company to build her own design of a two-wheeled wheelchair based on a Segway.

Skiing career Ruth was born in Hedemora Municipality in 1973. She had both her legs amputated at the age of three due to an accident with a lorry. At the age of 12, she decided that she wanted to ski and contacted Ecke Lindgren, who constructed a sit-ski for her. Ruth then hurt her back and did no further events. She subsequently retired from competitive skiing.

Wheelchair development Ruth, who took the name of Marit Sundin, lived in Åre and had to rely on her car for transport, particularly for skiing as there was no good snow locally. Sundin experimented with Segways. She ordered a type of Segway that allowed the rider to sit. However this design depended on the transfer of weight to slow down and Sundin could not achieve this, so the device was difficult to stop. She devised a new, Segway-based chair in which the chair is mounted on rails. This new design allows the rider to rapidly transfer their weight and therefore control the vehicle.