Ellen Geddes hopes to inspire through competitive success

(NEXSTAR)— Wheelchair fencing Paralympian Ellen Geddes said she’s made a lot of changes ahead of the 2024 Paris Paralympics. The 35-year-old from Johnston, South Carolina has a new coach and has been working with a sports psych to get in the right headspace.

“I would really like to make it on the podium,” Geddes said.

Geddes was a former competitive equestrian before breaking her back in a car accident in 2011. She suffered a complete spinal cord injury and just one year after starting wheelchair fencing, Geddes qualified for her first Wheelchair World Championship Team.

“I really hope that through my competitive success people could like be inspired to try it, to try fencing, and to try any kind of competition and believe that they can keep doing it even when they aren’t successful,” Geddes said.

Geddes competed in the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics and has won at least a dozen individual and team medals in Zonal and World Cup Competitions to date.

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