Sophie Christiansen

Who is Sophie Christiansen?

Sophie Margaret Christiansen, OBE is a British equestrian who has competed in three successive Paralympic Games, winning several medals.

Christiansen was born two months prematurely with cerebral palsy and suffered from other health problems including jaundice, blood poisoning, a heart attack and a collapsed lung. At the age of six she began horse riding as a form of physiotherapy at her local Riding for the Disabled Association group. She was educated at Charters School in Sunningdale, and left in 2006 to study for a masters degree in mathematics at Royal Holloway, University of London.

She first competed at the Paralympics aged 16 and was the youngest athlete for Great Britain at the 2004 Summer Paralympics. She contested both the freestyle and championship dressage grade I, the classification grade for severely disabled athletes. In the freestyle event Christiansen finished fourth with the gold medal being won by British teammate Lee Pearson. The championship grade I dressage saw Christiansen win her first Paralympic medal. Competing with her horse Hotstuff, she took bronze with gold again being won by Pearson. She was named BBC London Disabled Athlete of the Year for 2004.