Heidi Andreasen

Heidi Andreasen (born December 18, 1985 in Tórshavn on the Faroe Islands ) is a successful swimmer at the Paralympics .

Heidi Andreasen lives in Eiði and started training in 1995 at the age of nine. Since birth, she has not been able to use her legs from the knees down (classification S8 ). Today it occupies a leading position in international disabled sports. Her first participation in the European Championship was in Braunschweig in 1999 . The following year the EM in Sheffield followed . She celebrated her breakthrough as a 14-year-old at the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney . Heidi Andreasen swam all four medals for the Faroe Islands (who participate as a separate nation): silver on the 50, 100 and 400 meters freestyle (where she set a European record) and bronze on the 100 meters back - all this despite a hand injury. Since then, Heidi has been a star at home.

At the European Championships in Stockholm in 2001 , she won four gold medals. In swimming medley over 200 meters, she set a new world record and improved her own European record over 400 meters freestyle again. In 2002 she was nominated for World Sportsman of the Year and achieved second place behind the Dutch wheelchair tennis player Esther Vergeer in the world athlete with disabilities category . The award ceremony on May 13th of that year in Monaco was broadcast live on Faroese television. In 2003 she came back from the Canadian Open in Canada with five gold medals around her neck - not without setting a world record there and having improved it again in the final.

At the 2004 Summer Paralympics , Heidi Andreasen was the only representative (thereby also the flag bearer) of her country. On September 24th she won bronze in the 400 meter freestyle behind Lichelle Clark (Australia) and Jessica Long (USA), who swam a new Paralympic record. At the British Open 2006 in Sheffield Heidi Andreasen took part in eight competitions. She won gold six times and silver twice, although she became ill and had a fever beforehand.

At the Summer Paralympics 2008 she was again the only representative (thereby also the flag bearer) of her country.

Valid world records

Heidi Andreasen holds the following world records in class S8 on the long track:

• 200 meter freestyle in 2: 34.27 min on July 19, 2003 in Edmonton at the Canadian Open
• 50 meters butterfly in 36.53 s on March 6, 2004 in Esbjerg at the Danish Open