Louise Sauvage: Super Champ

She’s stubborn, self-motivated and one of the most highly decorated athletes Australia has. S IGNS editor Lee Dunstan got to catch up with the champ.

Louise Sauvage is one of the most highly decorated athletes Australia has, but, unlike many others, she isn’t hounded by cameras every time she passes through an airport departure lounge on her way to another victory.

It’s not that she isn’t well recognised or acknowledged in her discipline. And it isn’t that she’s without charm or good looks (she did a fashion spread for New Idea pre- Sydney 2000). But champions come in all shapes and sizes, or, in the case of Louise Sauvage, a wheelchair. In her wheelchair she’s conquered the world.

She sees her wheelchair as just one part of life. And unlike many able-bodied persons, she doesn’t view herself differently to them. And she gets annoyed when people patronise the impaired for their disability.

“They don’t know they’re doing it half the time,” says Sauvage. “I want to change people’s perception and attitudes toward people with disabilities so it doesn’t become something that is unusual—so it’s not something like, ‘Oh, I saw someone in a wheelchair today . . .’ “I want them to see us as just another member of the community, and it’s not going to be any big deal. My ideal world would be where everything is accessible and everyone has access to everything whether they have a disability or not, and it isn’t a second thought. And you don’t have to do something special for someone because they’re in a wheelchair or can’t walk up stairs, or have a hearing impairment or anything like that. A disability shouldn’t be something people baulk at or think is unusual, or feel awkward around.

“It would be nice to have people with a disability to have equal acceptance in the general community, no matter what the difference is.” She saw her achievements in the runup to the Sydney 2000 Olympics and Paralympics as an ideal opportunity to highlight the position of disabled athletes, particularly in the Australian culture.

“I wanted to do whatever I could through the Olympics and Paralympics to teach the public about wheelchair sport and to change people’s perceptions about athletes with a disability. My hope was that any personal success I gained at either games, or both, would add to the vastly wider positives that I expected a successful Sydney Paralympics to bring.” It’s a goal Sauvage has obviously attained. The reception given to her and public acceptance of the Sydney Paralympics was astounding, especially when contrasted to the dismal empty stand in Atlanta just four years earlier. It also says a lot about Australians, who, as Sauvage streaked across the finish line in the 800 metres demonstration event in 2000, brought 110,000 people to their feet.

Sauvage believes the country does well in accepting and assimilating those with disabilities.

She contrasts the situation in Australia with what she found in Monaco, where she went to receive her World Sportsperson of the Year trophy (by Cartier), at the inaugural Laureus Sports Awards.

“ Monte Carlo proved difficult for someone in a chair. . . . I don’t like being carried anywhere, and I got annoyed at not being able to go where I wanted to go,” she says, recounting the moment in her recently released book.* When, following the awards, she went with her mother, Dawn Fraser and Fraser’s daughter to find a place to eat that had easy access for a wheelchair, she had to give up and, disgusted, returned to her hotel room for a minibar snack.

Her award, presented in the company of elite athletes at a glitzy “Oscars-like” evening, was well deserved. With three gold medals at the Barcelona Paralympics in 1992, she added four to that at Atlanta and two more in Sydney.

She won the 800 metres demonstration race at Atlanta and backed that up with another win in front of her home crowd in Sydney. To those mere sprints, add three wins in the famous Boston Marathon (1998,1999, 2001), the Honolulu (1999) and Sampach Marathons (2000), and it’s easy to see why she’s earned the titles of, variously, Young Australian of the Year (Sports), Australian Paralympian, International Female Wheelchair Athlete and World Sportsperson of the Year since 1997. Oh, there was an Order of Australia Medal (OAM) in 1992, as well.

She began competing as a disabled athlete as an eight-year-old in Perth, and has tried a number of sports. Her upper body strength, which gives her a winning edge, came from swimming, something she took up at age three. She went into wheelchair sports at age eight, competing in basketball and track and field—“anything I could get my hands on,” she says.

She now lives in Sydney.

In her early years, there was little community or commercial support for wheelchair athletics. She received her first major sponsorship from the Australian Institute of Sport in 1990. In the lead-in to the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, she couldn’t even afford to attend the trials.

“I wouldn’t have made it without my family and friends—their support and their believing in me to achieve what I have. . . . I’m grateful.” Left to herself, she would probably still have achieved. Sauvage says she’s strong willed (she uses the word stubborn ), but that had her life started out differently, she’d probably have been the same person she is today. And her disability wasn’t something she felt she had to “overcome,” for she never knew anything else, and accepted it as being part of who she was and is.

“I was born with my disability, but I would like to think that I would be like [I am] whether I had the disability or not. I’d have the same personality—I think I was just born with it.

“I’m stubborn and self-motivated; obviously that makes a difference to what I do and how I can achieve.” As a high-calorie consuming athlete, she says she doesn’t need to follow as strict a diet, but she does look after her body. She tries to maintain a balance in what she eats, how much she exercises and trains, and a social life.

“I try to keep a balanced diet (obviously), and try to exercise a fair bit. Aside from sport, I would still live a healthy lifestyle. It’s got to be worthwhile,” she says. “And being in a wheelchair, the stronger you are and the healthier, the easier things are. I like to feel strong all of the time; I like to feel that way just because it makes every day a lot easier.” She suggests that she gives “equal” time to her sport, which she loves, her career and social life. In fact, she says, “My career is my sport! Where a lot of people exercise on top of their job and then have a social life and family life, mine are just combined!”

But does sport dominate her life to the point of obsession? And does it dominate the Australian culture? “I don’t think there can ever be enough [sport],” she says. Rather, “It’s our way of life—our culture as well—where we’re involved in so much sport, either playing it or watching it. But there are options for people who don’t play or care for sport in any way.” She sees sport as having a broader value than entertainment. Her profile, prowess and success, for example, she hopes would help to motivate people—especially those in wheelchairs—to improve their general health and fitness.

“I choose to be fit and healthy, and if that inspires someone else to go out and do that, that would be fantastic.” In fact, in any one month she will give up to six motivational talks—it varies with her recent exploits and successes— to organisations, schools or businesses, but enjoys talking to kids most of all.

“Kids are great,” she enthuses. “They have no preconceived ideas about anything; if they want to know something, they just ask it. It’s great! Most of the time they’re interested because I’ve got something different. They all want to know about how fast I can go [up to 60 km/h (downhill) in a chair costing upwards of $A8000] . . . they can see you on TV and then in the flesh, and so they can appreciate what I do.” Sauvage is big on setting short-term, attainable goals as a way to achieve over the long term. Although she never had aspirations as a youngster, nor any significant athletic heroes, it’s how she lives her life now.

“With my coach I’ll look at the schedule for the next year and see what events are on. I have to plan in regard to funding and [events in] the northern summer, and what the national squad is doing.

“For example, after January [2003], I’ll decide if I’ll continue, and at what level,” she says. “But my next goal is the Oz Day 10K—the Australia Day international road race in Sydney.” And she’s says she’s made no formal decisions about the Athens Olympics, in line with her philosophy of short-term goal setting only.

“People [need] to set achievable goals,” she says, adding that there is support out there for those wanting to chase after those goals.

Away from competition, her goals are less focused: “I’d like to get married and have children,” she says, hastening to add that she has nothing planned at the moment. But it’s “something to look at, at some stage!” One long-term aspiration is to see her newly established charity succeed.

Called “Aspire to Be a Champion,” it’s her way of giving the encouragement and assistance to up-andcoming athletes with disabilities at whatever level they’re competing at—from junior to elite—“they’re aspiring to be a champion.”

The Aspire Foundation,** which was established with a financial commitment from the Northern Eagles [NRL] Players Foundation, accepts donations from the public and corporations and raises money through periodic fundraisers. Last year it gave away $A13,000 in individual and team grants, and is growing by the year.

“I believed it was time to give something back to my sport; there are a lot of different opportunities for athletes and hopefully one of them is my grant.

They would use it for equipment, travel, coaching—anything they require in their chosen sport to help them with their sporting career.

“You also try to help organisations that you feel strongly about, and I’m ambassador for quite a few charities, including Assistance Dogs Australia, the Westmead Children’s Hospital in western Sydney and Barnado’s.”

* Louise Sauvage—My Story , Louise Savage and Ian Heads, Harper Sports , 2002.

** www.aspire.au.com

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