Brussels (AFP)
Belgian Paralympic athlete Marieke Vervoort, who was a 100m champion at the 2012 London Games, died Tuesday of euthanasia at the age of 40, Belgian media reported.
Reaching a rare disease paralyzing her legs, the Dutch-speaking Belgian with hair-cutting, brushcutting, had herself announced to the press in August 2016, just before her last Games in Rio, have already made the necessary steps to resort to euthanasia in case of aggravation of his suffering.
This practice is authorized and regulated by law in Belgium.
The sprinter was 14 years old when her "progressive quadriplegia" broke out. Her adolescence was punctuated with appointments "from one doctor to another, who did not know what I had and told me bad news," she explained.
Marieke Vervoort dedicated her injured body to the sport with great success: she first practiced wheelchair basketball, then swimming, which led to triathlon, the Belga press agency recalled.
She became World Paratriathlon Champion in 2006, and the following year, in October 2007, she made one of her dreams come true by competing in one of the most legendary events in the world, the Ironman Hawaii.
When this discipline became too demanding, she started in sand yachting and track and field in 2012, when she became a 100m wheelchair champion at the London Games.
Triple world wheelchair champion (100m, 200m, 400m) in 2015, she also won in Rio in 2016 silver on 400m and bronze on 100m in athletics.
His death was announced Tuesday by the mayor of Diest, the city where she resided in Flanders. His funeral will be celebrated in intimacy.
In September, Marieke Vervoort, nicknamed "Wielemie", had fulfilled her last wish by riding a Race Lamborghini Huracan Evolution on the Zolder circuit. "I was able to realize many dreams, this is the last one," she said.
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