Leo Rupp: Already ready for Rio?

Proud Paralympian Leo Rupp made the German shooting for London 2012 and is setting is sights firmly on Rio 2016. 22 Nov 2013
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Leo Rupp

German shooter Leo Rupp made the German team for London 2012 at the age of twenty.

ⒸLeo Rupp
By Leo Rupp

London 2012 was the best thing that happened to me in my life. Apart from my girlfriend, of course.

Hi there. My name is Leopold Rupp and I am very pleased to be able to blog on the IPC website. I'll tell you a little about my life as an athlete and a student on the way to Rio.

But first a little about me and my path to competitive sports. I grew up in northern Germany, 80 km north of Hamburg, by the North Sea. I have a form of special congenital dwarfism called diastrophic dysplasia. I am 1.34 m tall, but due to muscle and joint problems since the primary school I use a wheelchair. My family are my parents, my little sister and two horses. Since I was four years old, I played the drums. I was very active as a child, but in our village there were no sporting opportunities for me. Fortunately, my parents have a swimming pool in our house, where I could go swimming every day. At the age of 11 I started shooting at our club. With my trainer at home, we started to try ways for me to shoot and I started training. I became better from year to year, until I was accepted for the first time in the German national team in 2010.

In 2011 I moved to Berlin to study medicine after graduating from high school. Now began the balancing act between study and sport performance, which is really not easy for me. Unexpectedly in early 2012 at just 20 years of age, our former head coach of shooting in Germany, Uwe Knapp, told me that I was nominated for the Paralympics in London. Without really realizing it, the next six months went by in a flash. Exercise, excitement, exercise, excitement, exercise, London!

London 2012 was the best thing that happened to me in my life. Apart from my girlfriend, of course.

I think that I have the game, even though I am perhaps not quite there yet. On my rifle was printed "Ready for London," and now it says: "Ready for Rio".

A hope? Probably more a target.

Perhaps I'm not ready for Rio yet, but the next competition will be my home World Championships in Suhl in 2014, which I have set for myself as a starting point for Rio. And then I'm more than ready for 2016.

I'm glad to give you the chance to participate in the coming months on my current life, training and the way to Rio.

#ProudParalympian

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