Nottwil 2025 GP Preview: Wheelchair racing legends Debrunner, Hug lead the charge

The focus is back on one of the most traditional Para athletics venues as the World Para Athletics Grand Prix arrives in Nottwil for its sixth event this season.  

The Swiss city is a regular stop for top athletes across the globe and has been part of the GP calendar since 2014 - the second season of the Grand Prix, launched in 2013.

This year, a total of 254 athletes from 40 countries across all continents (two from Africa, five from the Americas, seven from Asia, two from Oceania and 24 from Europe) will be in action aiming to make another memorable return to the Switzerland.

How to follow?

You can watch all sessions of the Nottwil 2025 World Para Athletics Grand Prix live here.  

Complete schedule and results from the Grand Prix will be available here. 

Also keep an eye on World Para Athletics social media channels to witness the very best of the action from Switzerland.

Swiss icons

Famous as one of the world's fastest tracks for wheelchair racing, Nottwil is expected to witness action-packed races over the next three days (23-25 May). The host nation is set to field the biggest team (23 athletes) followed by Great Britain (22), Germany (17) and Canada (16).

The home team will be led by their star wheelchair racing duo Catherine Debrunner and Marcel Hug, both of whom had stamped their dominance with victories at the London Marathon 2025 last month.

Debrunner was the most successful Para athletics athlete at last year’s Paralympic Games shining with six medals (five golds and one silver). She will be competing in five races at the Nottwil GP, including the women’s 400m T53, 800m T53, 1500m T54 and 5000m T54, in which she won Paralympic gold at Paris 2024.

Seven-time Paralympic champion Hug will be the star to watch out for in men’s races; he will be in action in three events at home - the men’s 800m T54, 1500m T54 and 5000m T54.

Elena Krater is the other Paris 2024 medallist competing in Nottwil this week. Bronze medallist in the women’s long jump T63 at last year’s Games, she will be competing in her pet event and in the women’s 100m T63.

📸 Back to a magical Paralympics in Paris for Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability Nominee, Catherine Debrunner

🥇 Marathon
🥇 5000m
🥇 1500m
🥇 800m
🥇 400m
🥈 100m#Laureus25 pic.twitter.com/ScFiF74nGD

— Laureus (@LaureusSport) April 3, 2025

International names 

Second largest team at the Grand Prix, Great Britain will be headlined by nine-time Paralympic champion Hannah Cockroft, who will be eyeing for a 17th world title at September’s World Para Athletics Championships in New Delhi. Cockroft will take part in the women’s 100 m T34, 400 m T34 and 800 m T34 in Nottwil.

Canada made the long trip to Switzerland with two athletes who will be competing in events that gave them Paralympic gold in Paris. Brent Lakatos will race the men’s 800m T53 and Austin Smeek will be in action in the men’s 800m T34. Smeek will meet again Thailand’s Chaiwat Rattana and Australia’s Rheed McCracken, whom he beat to silver and bronze, respectively at Paris 2024.

Thai stalwarts 

Rattana is the reigning Paralympic champion in the men’s 100m T34, his first Paralympic gold medal in the event in Paris which Smeek finished with bronze.

Thailand’s most successful Paralympian ever with six gold medals, Pongsakorn Paeyo will take part in four races in Nottwil – among them is the men’s 400m T53 in which he is took a third consecutive Paralympic gold last year. 

Payo will also be in action in the men’s 100m T53 against Saudi Arabia’s Abdulrahman Alqurashi – the Paris 2024 champion and only second Saudi gold medallist in Para athletics in the history of the Games.

Among the five other Asian nations, India – the host nation of this year’s World Championships – has sent seven athletes to Nottwil. 

The undisputed star in the group is thrower Sumit Antil. His impressive collection in the men’s javelin F64 includes two Paralympic golds (Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024), two world titles (Paris 2023 and Kobe 2024) and the Asian Para Games gold (Hangzhou 2022 – where he set the current world record at 73.29m).

There will be five nations from the Americas: Argentina, Bermuda, Canada, Mexico and USA – competing in Nottwil. Paris 2024 winner in the men’s 100m T54, Juan Pablo Cervantes is the star in the five-strong Mexican delegation in Nottwil expected to return home with good results.

Meanwhile, Argentina will field its Paris 2024 champion Brian Lionel Impellizzeri in the men’s long jump T37.

👋🏾 Meet @sumit_javelin India's Javelin Champion 🇮🇳

🎦Sumit Antil and his journey to becoming a Paralympic and world champion in javelin throw F64.#ParaAthletics @Paralympics @ParalympicIndia @asianparalympic pic.twitter.com/tMdi4QXuQH

— Para Athletics (@ParaAthletics) July 8, 2024

Women’s field

In women’s events, Belgium’s Lea Bayekula is another wheelchair racer coming to Switzerland as the reigning Paralympic champion – she is a double champion holding the titles in the women’s 100m T54 and 400m T54.

Wheelchair racing legend Tatyana McFadden is one of the seven USA athletes in Nottwil. An eight-time Paralympic champion in Para athletics, the T54 athlete will compete in the women’s 100m, 400m, 800m and 1500m.

The list of stars in Nottwil not just include Paralympic champions. From Bermuda comes the Caribbean island’s most famous Paralympian - Jessica Copper Lewis who has been to all Games since London 2012 as Bermuda’s only Paralympic competitor in Para athletics to date.

A regular at the Nottwil GP, Lewis is a four-time Parapan American champion with her three titles coming in the women’s 100m T53.

More information and the complete calendar of the 2025 World Para Athletics Grand Prix can be found here.