Portrait

Marieke Vervoort

Born: 10 May 1979Diest, Belgium
Died: 22 October 2019Diest, Belgium · aged 40

Paralympic athleteBelgium

Marieke Vervoort

A Paralympic champion who raced through constant pain – and spoke openly about her right to decide when to die.

Marieke Vervoort grew up in Diest in Belgium. As a teenager she developed an incurable degenerative disease of the muscles and spine, which caused her severe pain and gradually paralysed her legs. She also had epilepsy; her assistance dog Zenn could warn her of seizures.

Sport became her way of living with the disease. She first took part in triathlons for wheelchair users, then turned to wheelchair racing. At the 2012 Paralympics in London she won gold over 100 metres and silver over 200 metres; at the 2015 World Championships she won three titles, and in Rio in 2016 she won silver and bronze.

Vervoort was openly lesbian. In 2008 she had signed the papers for euthanasia, which is legal in Belgium. She said that knowing she could decide herself when the pain became unbearable had given her the strength to keep living and competing. Her openness about this sparked debate around the world.

In October 2019, aged 40, she ended her life through euthanasia in her hometown of Diest.

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