The success story of a Wheelchair Racer - Joyce Lefevre

Joyce Lefevre, a 35-year-old from Antwerp, is a Paralympic athlete who excels in athletics. Thanks to her performance in 2014, on a particularly extreme 100 km course in a manual wheelchair, Joyce was noticed by big names in the sports world, including Steven Van Beylen, then the top sports coordinator at G-Sport Flanders. This event marked the beginning of a new life, a life as an athlete.

As the only girl of a triplet, Joyce Lefevre, unlike her two brothers, was born with an oxygen deficiency that led to a physical disability: spastic diplegia. This makes it difficult for her to move around and therefore she needs a wheelchair. Despite this, Joyce leads an independent life, with her condition not being a major obstacle in her daily life. At times, however, she has had to learn to fight to achieve her goals, which has made her mindset even stronger.

Since childhood, Joyce Lefevre has been athletic and 9 years ago she started wheelchair racing. In 2014, she participated in a "death march" and supported the non-profit organisation Tumbador in its rehabilitation projects in Latin America. She covered 100 km in a manual wheelchair. This achievement did not go unnoticed and provided the beginning of her sports career.

Her participation in the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games and the bronze medals she won at the World Championships in Italy (2016) and Germany (2018) showed the general public what Joyce is capable of. Thanks to these results, she represented Belgium for the second time at the Tokyo Paralympic Games in 2021, where she finish 7th in the 100m and 5th in the 800m, placing her 4th in the world ranking that same year. To get there, Joyce follows a very strict training programme, with at least six training sessions a week with her coach Mieke Van Thuyne and sometimes in the company of other athletes such as world champion Peter Genyn. The training schedule consists of a combination of athletics and strength training, which she occasionally does at a Basic-Fit club. In addition, nutrition, psychological support and rest periods are not negligible in an athlete's career.

Finally, it is with fighting spirit and great motivation that Joyce Lefevre is currently aiming to qualify for the Paralympic Games in Paris in 2024. There, she will once again be able to show the best of herself and the skills she has acquired over the past nine years.