Paralympian & Disability Campaigner
Team Sophie
This page is dedicated to Team Sophie, the collective name for all those people, horses and organisations who support Sophie in her current endeavours, Paris 2024 and Next Generation Legacy, and those who have supported Sophie in her past Paralympic journey. The Proven Equation video, made by the BBC for 2016 edition of Sports Personality of the Year, is a short introduction to Sophie and some of her achievements. The following two videos offer a more in-depth profile of Sophie. The first is a Q&A session recorded in early 2018 where she answers questions posted from her 15,000+ Twitter followers. The second video is an interview following her triumph at the Rio Paralympics.
Meet Sophie
The Horses
Gladstone, or William, is a 12 year old Stallion and is a familiar face in the para dressage world having been shortlisted for the 2018 World Equestrian Games. There are more photos and videos of Sophie's other horses in the Gallery or social media channels.
The Sponsors
Being an equestrian athlete is extremely expensive. Sophie relies on staff to look after her horses daily, and has to pay at least a coach and a carer to come with her to training and competitions. Training and livery costs are at least £1,400 per horse per month, even before competition costs. For this reason, it would be impossible for her to compete without the help of sponsors and Team Sophie. If you feel you have a product or service that Sophie could benefit from then please feel free to contact us. Also if you'd like Sophie to endorse, sponsor or support your business at an event please contact us via our contact page or consider joining the membership club whose members get "Gold" access to speaking engagements. Sophie would like to thank the following businesses for their support.
Meet the Team
Trainer, grooms, farrier, vet, stable manager, carers, physio, doctors, assistant, business partner, friends, parents, partner and many many more make up the broad, eclectic and fun team that help and support Sophie to achieve what she does. They are professional, good at what they do and a nice bunch to have around, especially when times get tough. Thank you to each and every one.
2018-19 Competition Results
Sophie will be competing in a series of competitions and GB team selection events throughout the season with the aim of preparing Harry for life at the major competitions and to qualify for Tokyo. The Story and results so far is captured in the gallery below.
Gallery
Enjoy images and videos of Sophie's journey so far. Click the larger image to expand and play videos. More content is made available via social media channels.
Z
History
Sophie Christiansen CBE is a British dressage rider who has competed in four successive Paralympic Games and is currently an eight-time Paralympic champion and has won multiple World and European titles. In 2016, following her success at the Rio Paralympics, she placed fifth in the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year the highest placed female and Para athlete.
Sophie was born two months prematurely with Cerebral Palsy and suffered from other health problems including jaundice, blood poisoning, a heart attack and a collapsed lung. Aged 6, she started riding for physiotherapy at the local Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) group.
She first competed at the Paralympics aged 16 and was the youngest athlete for Great Britain at the Athens Paralympics in 2004, coming away with an unexpected bronze medal.
Not just an athlete, Sophie also graduated with a First Class Masters degree in mathematics from Royal Holloway, University of London in 2011 and now works as a software developer at investment bank, Goldman Sachs. Other notable milestones include:
-
2017: Awarded CBE for services to para-equestrian
-
2013: Awarded OBE for services to Equestrianism and for disability sport
-
2012: Awarded Honorary Fellowship of Royal Holloway, University of London
-
2008: Awarded MBE for services to Disabled Sport
-
2008: Awarded Raymond Brooks-Ward Trophy for Most Outstanding Young Rider
-
2004: BBC London Disabled Athlete of the year
As with all athletes, Sophie has had significant support throughout her career and over that time Team Sophie has included many different individuals, organisations and horses who have contributed significantly to her success. A special thanks goes to the horses, owners and funders whom without none of the above would have been possible. These include Alan Carr MBE, Ronnie Wilkie and of course the people Sophie thanks most are her parents, family and fiance, Peter.
