261000 - Athletics track 200m T20 Lisa Llorens gold medal podium - 3b - 2000 Sydney medal photo

261000 - Athletics track Lisa Llorens starting blocks - 3b - 2000 Sydney race photo

23 ACPS Atlanta 1996 Track Sharon Rackham Chris Nunn

Lisa Christina Llorens, OAM(born 17 January 1978) is an Australian

Paralympic athlete The Paralympic sports comprise all the sports contested in the Summer Paralympic Games, Summer and Winter Paralympic Games. As of 2020, the Summer Paralympics included 22 sports and 539 medal events, and the Winter Paralympics include 5 sports a ...

. She was born in

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

. She specialises in

Paralympic The Paralympic Games or Paralympics is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disabilities. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Kore ...

high jumping, long jumping, and sprinting, participating in competitions for athletes with

autism Autism, also known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by differences or difficulties in social communication and interaction, a preference for predictability and routine, sensory processing d ...

. Llorens is known as "The Cheetah" because she has a great affinity with cheetahs. She commented "I feel like I have a connection with the cheetahs, because I'm quite shy, like a cat, and I run so fast." An educational documentary was made about her called ''Lisa Llorens: A Cheetah on the Track''. From 1998 to 2002, she held an athletics scholarship from the

Australian Institute of Sport The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...

for Athletes with a Disability. Llorens competed at the

1996 Summer Paralympics The 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, were held from August 16 to 25. It was the first Paralympics to get mass media sponsorship, and had a budget of USD $81 million. It was the first Paralympic Games where Internatio ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

, winning gold and bronze medals in track and field events. She received a

Medal of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Australian honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of then ...

for her 1996 gold medal. She also represented Australia at the

2000 Summer Paralympics The 2000 Summer Paralympic Games or the XI Summer Paralympics were held in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, between 18 and 29 October. The Sydney Paralympics was the last time that the Summer Paralympics were organized by two different Organ ...

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

, and won three gold medals in the 200 metre sprint, the high jump, and the long jump, and a silver medal in the 100 metre sprint. She broke the Paralympic world record three times during her four long jumps. Llorens also competed at the

IPC Athletics World Championships The World Para Athletics Championships, known as the IPC Athletics World Championships prior to 2017, are a biennial Paralympic athletics event organized by World Para Athletics, a subcommittee of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). It ...

in 1994, winning silver in both the long jump and the 200m; and in 1998, won gold in the 100m, high jump, and long jump . She took part in the

Paralympic World Cup The Paralympic World Cup was an annual international multi-sport event for elite athletes with a disability, that was hosted in Manchester, England, from 2005 until 2012. It was announced in 2013, that the Paralympic World Cup had been scraped fo ...

in 1998, winning gold in the 100 metre sprint, the high jump and the long jump. In 2004, due to the

International Paralympic Committee The International Paralympic Committee (IPC; ) is an international non-profit organisation and the global governing body for the Paralympic Movement. The IPC organizes the Paralympic Games and functions as the international federation for nin ...

's decision to remove events for intellectually disabled athletes from its official activities, Llorens retired, as she felt that there was nothing left for her to achieve in sport. The Australian Paralympic Committee describes her as "Australia’s most outstanding female athlete with an intellectual disability", along with Crystal-Lea Adams. In 1997, she was awarded the Australian Capital Territory Female Sportstar of the Year, and Young Canberra Citizen of the Year. In November 2015, she was inducted into the ACT Sport Hall of Fame. In 2016, Llorens was inducted into the

International Sports Federation for Persons with Intellectual Disability Virtus Sport (formerly INAS or INAS Sport) (International Sports Federation for Persons with Intellectual Disability; originally called INAS-FMH, later INAS-FID, INAS and now as Virtus Sport) is a federation which was established in 1986 by pr ...

(INAS) Hall of Fame.

References

External links

25 ACPS Atlanta 1996 Athletics Sharon Rackham and Lisa Llorens

"Australian cheetah hunts down rivals"
''The Daily Telegraph'', 7 November 2000 * {{DEFAULTSORT:Llorens, Lisa 1978 births Athletes (track and field) at the 1996 Summer Paralympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2000 Summer Paralympics Australian female high jumpers Australian female long jumpers Australian female sprinters Australian Institute of Sport Paralympic track and field athletes Intellectual disability-category Paralympic competitors Living people Medalists at the 1996 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2000 Summer Paralympics Paralympic athletes for Australia Paralympic bronze medalists for Australia Paralympic gold medalists for Australia Paralympic silver medalists for Australia Autistic sportspeople Recipients of the Medal of the Order of Australia Sportswomen from the Australian Capital Territory ACT Academy of Sport alumni Competitors in athletics with intellectual disability Paralympic medalists in athletics (track and field) 21st-century Australian women 20th-century Australian sportswomen