Birgit Kober (born 10 July 1971) is a German Paralympic athlete. She initially competed in F34 seated throwing events, and from 2011-2013 she became the reigning champion at European, World and Paralympic level in both shot put and javelin in her class. At the

2012 Summer Paralympic Games The 2012 Summer Paralympics, branded as the London 2012 Paralympic Games, were an international Multi-sport event, multi-sport parasports event held from 29 August to 9 September 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. They were the 14th Sum ...

in London, she broke the world record in both her events. Following changes to the IPC rules for seated throws in 2014, she chose to compete in a standing position as an F36 athlete. She won the F36 shot put at the

2016 Summer Paralympic Games ) , nations = 159 , athletes = 4,342 , opening = 7 September , closing = 18 September , opened_by = President Michel Temer , cauldron = Clodoaldo Silva , events = 528 in 22 sports , stadium = Maracanã , sum ...

with a Paralympic record throw. she is World Record holder in the Women's F36 shot put, a distance of 11.52 m set in July 2016.

Career history

Early history

Kober was born in 1971 and grew up in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

. She took to sport at a young age, and by 14 she was involved in athletics and the javelin throw while at school in Munich. At the age of 16 a reaction with medical treatment left her deaf, and a year later she suffered an

epileptic Epilepsy is a group of non-communicable neurological disorders characterized by recurrent epileptic seizures. Epileptic seizures can vary from brief and nearly undetectable periods to long periods of vigorous shaking due to abnormal electrical ...

seizure. While still a teenager she moved to the Ruhr region where she attended a school for the deaf. She continued her education, specializing in medicine but was forced to cut her studies in 2006 to help care for her sick mother. In 2007 Kober suffered from a

status epilepticus Status epilepticus (SE), or status seizure, is a single seizure lasting more than 5 minutes or 2 or more seizures within a 5-minute period without the person returning to normal between them. Previous definitions used a 30-minute time limit. The s ...

and she was rushed to hospital, but after complications she was left with

ataxia Ataxia is a neurological sign consisting of lack of voluntary coordination of muscle movements that can include gait abnormality, speech changes, and abnormalities in eye movements. Ataxia is a clinical manifestation indicating dysfunction of ...

Athletics career

Kober returned to athletics in 2008, mainly as a form of enjoyment with no serious ambitions to take the sport further. She joined

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where she was coached by Joachim Lipske. Kober was quickly identified as a potential talent in throwing events and by 2009 she was competing in national competitions. Classified as a T/F34 category para-athlete, Kober specialized in both the javelin and shot put. She qualified for the

2011 IPC Athletics World Championships The 2011 IPC Athletics World Championships was held in Christchurch, New Zealand from January 21 to 30, 2011. Athletes with a disability competed, and the Championships was a qualifying event for the London 2012 Paralympic Games. Ove1000 athlet ...

in Christchurch, New Zealand, and took gold in both her events. In the shot put, where she competed in a mixed F32/33/34 grouping, she threw a distance of 9.30m, a new world record. In 2012, in the build-up to the Summer Paralympics in London, she entered the

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

Stadskanaal Stadskanaal () is a town and municipality with a population of 32,715 in the province of Groningen in the northeast of the Netherlands. It was named after the canal Stadskanaal. From 1800 until 1900 this area was ideal for its peat mining, and so ...

in the Netherlands. She again dominated the field taking both gold medals and recording a world record in the shot put with a throw of 10.06m. At the Paralympics she recorded a distance of 27.03m in the javelin and three days later she threw 10.25m in the shot put. Both distances were new world records in the F34 classification and gave her gold in both events. Kober defended her World titles when she travelled to Lyon for the 2013 World Championships. She took both the javelin throw (F33/34) and shot put titles, equaling her world record throw in the javelin.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kober, Birgit Paralympic gold medalists for Germany Paralympic athletes of Germany Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Paralympics German female javelin throwers German female shot putters 1971 births Living people World record holders in Paralympic athletics Medalists at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Paralympic medalists in athletics (track and field) Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Paralympics