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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Angelique Chrisafis in Paris

Marie-Amélie Le Fur lost a leg at 15. Nine medals later she faces her biggest challenge

Marie-Amélie Le Fur holds the Olympic torch alongside French Para triathlete Alexis Hanquinquant (left) and French para athlete Nantenin Keïta (right) at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games.
Marie-Amélie Le Fur holds the Olympic torch alongside French Para triathlete Alexis Hanquinquant (left) and French para athlete Nantenin Keïta (right) at the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games. Photograph: Patrick Smith/Getty Images

When the athlete Marie-Amélie Le Fur was hit by a car while riding her scooter and had her left leg amputated beneath the knee aged 15, her swift return to the running track saved her mental health and changed her life.

“Sport was so important in those first few weeks after the accident because it allowed me to rebuild myself psychologically and construct an identity,” she says. “While I was doing sport, I wasn’t being seen only as my disability or for what I had lost – there were bigger hopes, projects and ambitions.”

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