Helene Barbro Ripa (born 22 August 1971) is a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

former Paralympic athlete who has participated in swimming, cross-country skiing, mountain bike orienteering and canoeing events. She qualified as a swimmer for the

1992 Paralympic Games )( es, Deporte Sin Límites) , nations = 82 (BCN)75 (MAD) , athletes = 3,020 (BCN)1,600 (MAD) , opened_by = Queen Sofía , opening = 3 September (BCN)15 September (MAD) , closing = 14 September (BCN)22 September (MAD) , even ...

but finished outside the medal considerations. Ripa won a gold medal in cross-country skiing—her first Paralympic skiing event—and subsequently a silver medal at the

2014 Paralympics The 2014 Winter Paralympics (russian: Зимние Паралимпийские игры 2014, Zimniye Paralimpiyskiye igry 2014), the 11th Paralympic Winter Games, and also more generally known as the Sochi 2014 Paralympic Winter Games, were an ...

Sochi Sochi ( rus, Со́чи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg) is the largest resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi River, along the Black Sea in Southern Russia, with a population of 466,078 residents, up to 600,000 residents in ...

, Russia. She competed in canoeing at the

2016 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 ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, Brazil, marking three Paralympic appearances in three sports. She competed at the 2020 Summer Paralympics, in Women's KL3.

Sports career

Swimming

At the age of fourteen, Helene Ripa was diagnosed with

cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...

in her right leg and doctors were forced to amputate the limb above the knee. Following her rehabilitation, she took up swimming. She swam for '' Nacka HI'' and won several championships between 1988 and 1993 for the club. Among these were twenty-three Swedish Championship medals—ten of those gold. She also won four medals at the 1991 European Championship in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, including one gold medal. She won five medals during the swimming championships in 1993; three of which were gold medals. Ripa qualified for the

but did not win any medals. In 1993, Ripa was forced to end her swimming career due to injuries, opting instead to learn interior decorating and move to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. She later returned to Stockholm, where she started a dressmaking business that specialized in home decorating. Her dressmaking business lasted for about seven years.

Skiing

In 2003, Ripa met her future husband Ronnie Pettersson, whose athletic interests motivated her to return to sport. This time she participated in cycling, paddling and skiing. In 2011 in Tjejvasan, Ripa competed in her first cross-country skiing event. In 2012, she qualified for Sweden's cross-country national team. Following several good results, she placed sixth in the Total World Cup IPC Nordic Skiing 2012/13. At the

, Russia, Ripa won a gold medal in the 15 km classic cross-country event. It was her first Paralympic start as a competitive skier. By winning the event, she became Sweden's first Paralympic Winter Games gold medalist since the

1994 Winter Paralympics The 1994 Winter Paralympics ( no, Paralympiske vinterleker 1994; nn, Paralympiske vinterleikane 1994), the sixth Paralympic Winter Games, were held in Lillehammer, Norway, from 10 to 19 March 1994. These Games marked the second time the Paraly ...

Lillehammer Lillehammer () is a municipality in Innlandet county, Norway. It is located in the traditional district of Gudbrandsdal. The administrative centre of the municipality is the town of Lillehammer. Some of the more notable villages in the municip ...

. In the mixed relay, Ripa competed with

Zebastian Modin Zebastian Tintin Modin (born June 20, 1994) is a Swedish cross-country skier, biathlete, and Paralympian. He competed in classification B1 (visual impairment) events. Career He competed in biathlon and cross-country skiing at the 2010, 2014 a ...

and they won a silver medal. Ripa was nominated for ''Bragdguldet'', ''Jerringpriset'' ("The Jerring Award") and "Achievement of the Year" at the ''Svenska Idrottsgalan'' ("Swedish Athletics Gala") for her success at the 2014 Games.

Mountain bike orienteering

Ripa also competes in mountain bike orienteering for the club Haninge SOK. She placed second in 0-Ringen, which was held in Boden, Sweden, in 2013, and won silver at the Swedish Championships in Eksjö in 2014. At the Swedish Championships in Söderhamn in 2015, Ripa won a silver medal in sprint.

Canoeing

In mid-2015, Ripa started training and competing in canoeing for Brunnsvikens Kanotklubb. She initially considered it as a complement to her skiing. At the World Championships in

Duisburg Duisburg () is a city in the Ruhr metropolitan area of the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. Lying on the confluence of the Rhine and the Ruhr rivers in the center of the Rhine-Ruhr Region, Duisburg is the 5th largest city in Nor ...

, Germany, in May 2016, Ripa qualified for the final and thus also qualified for the canoe sprint at the

, Brazil. The 2016 Games was the first Paralympics in which para-canoeing was an event; athletes could compete in three classes;

KL1 KL1, or Kernel Language 1 is an experimental AND-parallel version of KL0 developed for the ICOT Fifth Generation Computer project. KL1 is an implementation of Flat GHC (a subset of the Guarded Horn Clauses language by Kazunori Ueda), making ...

, KL2 and KL3 for K-1 200 metres. During the European Championships in

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, Russia, in June 2016, Ripa won the gold medal for K-1 200 metres in the KL3 class. She finished in fifth place in the final of the KL3 200-metre canoe sprint at the Rio Paralympics.

Media

Ripa presented the

Sveriges Radio Sveriges Radio AB (, "Sweden's Radio") is Sweden's national publicly funded radio broadcaster. Sveriges Radio is a public limited company, owned by an independent foundation, previously funded through a licensing fee, the level of which is d ...

show ''

Sommar i P1 ''Sommar i P1'' (''Summer on P1'') is one of the most popular shows on Swedish radio. It has been broadcast every summer since 29June 1959, originally as ''Sommar'' on P3 and since 1993 on P1. About Each 90-minute-long programme in the series ...

'' ("Summer on P1") on 1 July 2014 where she described her life and career. She then appeared on the televised after-show ''

Sommarpratarna ''Sommarpratarna'' is a Swedish television series at Sveriges Television. The series had its premiere on 10November 2009 and has been broadcast every year since. It features the celebrity guests of the radio show ''Sommar i P1 ''Sommar i P1'' ( ...

'' ("Summer conversations"), which was broadcast on SVT in November 2014. Ripa participated in the

TV4 TV4 or TV 4 may refer to: * TV4 (Poland), a private Polish television station * TV4 (Sweden), a Swedish television network ** TV4 Group, owners of the Swedish television station * South African Broadcasting Corporation TV4, a channel operated by th ...

game show '' Fort Boyard'' in 2014 where she teamed up with

Thomas Wassberg Thomas Lars Wassberg (born 27 March 1956) is a Swedish former cross-country skier. A fast skating style – push for every leg – is still called "Wassberg" after him in several countries. Wassberg's skiing idols when growing up were Sixten Je ...

and Jonas Hallberg to take on the physical challenges of the game show.

References

External links

Helene Ripa's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ripa, Helene Living people 1971 births Paralympic gold medalists for Sweden Swedish amputees Sportspeople from Stockholm Swedish female swimmers Swedish female cross-country skiers Mountain bike orienteers Female orienteers Swedish female canoeists Swimmers at the 1992 Summer Paralympics Cross-country skiers at the 2014 Winter Paralympics Medalists at the 2014 Winter Paralympics Canoeists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Paralympic silver medalists for Sweden Sommar (radio program) hosts Swedish disabled sportspeople Paralympic medalists in cross-country skiing Paralympic cross-country skiers for Sweden Paralympic swimmers for Sweden 21st-century Swedish women