Dedeline Mibamba Kimbata (born 5 February 1982) is

Congo Congo or The Congo may refer to either of two countries that border the Congo River in central Africa: * Democratic Republic of the Congo, the larger country to the southeast, capital Kinshasa, formerly known as Zaire, sometimes referred to a ...

lese Paralympic

track and field athlete Track and field is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of ...

Personal life

Kimbata was born on 5 February 1982. She was born to a poor family living in

Kinshasa Kinshasa (; ; ln, Kinsásá), formerly Léopoldville ( nl, Leopoldstad), is the capital and largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Once a site of fishing and trading villages situated along the Congo River, Kinshasa is now one o ...

, the capital and the largest city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). At the age of 18 she stepped on a landmine whilst crossing the border between the DRC and Angola. As a result, she lost her legs and had to stay in hospital for two years before being provided with

prosthetic limbs In medicine, a prosthesis (plural: prostheses; from grc, πρόσθεσις, prósthesis, addition, application, attachment), or a prosthetic implant, is an artificial device that replaces a missing body part, which may be lost through trau ...

by the Red Cross. During her stay in London for the Paralympics she applied for political asylum, since she feared prosecution in the DRC because of her protest against president Joseph Kabila.

Athletics

Kimbata had played basketball as a teenager and in 2011 decided to take up sport again. With the assistance of religious charities she began wheelchair racing at the Acoshi athletics club. She raced in her everyday wheelchair and despite her government providing funds to sports officials to buy her a racing chair it never arrived. She competes in the T54 Paralympic classification. The

International Paralympic Committee The International Paralympic Committee (IPC; german: Internationales Paralympisches Komitee) is an international non-profit organisation and the global governing body for the Paralympic Movement. The IPC organizes the Paralympic Games and fun ...

gave Kimbata a wildcard to allow her to compete at the

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

held in London, United Kingdom, where alongside

Levy Kitambala Kizito Levy, Lévy or Levies may refer to: People * Levy (surname), people with the surname Levy or Lévy * Levy Adcock (born 1988), American football player * Levy Barent Cohen (1747–1808), Dutch-born British financier and community worker * Levy F ...

she made up the DRC's first ever Paralympic team. She came to her training camp at the University of Bedfordshire without a racing wheelchair but had one donated to her by Kenyan Paralympian

Anne Wafula Strike Anne Wafula Strike MBE (born 8 May 1969) is a Harlow-based British Paralympic wheelchair racer. Wafula Strike was born in Mihuu in Bungoma, Kenya, and contracted polio at the age of two, resulting in a later Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital ...

after the two were put in contact by The Dream, a charity campaign run by organisations in Britain and Haiti. At the Paralympics Kimbata carried the DRC flag during the Parade of Nations at the

opening ceremony An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly-constructed location or the start of an event.

. She initially planned to compete in the F57–58 discus and the 1500 metres, but changed to competing in the discus and the T54 100 metres. Her discus event took place on 4 September and the 100 m event on 8 September, both in the Olympic Stadium in the

Olympic Park, London Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is a sporting complex and public park in Stratford, Hackney Wick, Leyton and Bow, in east London. It was purpose-built for the 2012 Summer Olympics and Paralympics, situated adjacent to the Stratford City develop ...

. She finished seventeenth in the discus with a throw of 9.29 metres. In the 100 metres she finished seventh in her heat, in a season's best time of 23.08 seconds, but failed to qualify for the final.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kimbata, Dedeline Mibamba Living people 1982 births Paralympic athletes for the Democratic Republic of the Congo Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Sportspeople from Kinshasa Landmine victims 21st-century Democratic Republic of the Congo people