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Biography
Helene Barbro Ripa (born 22 August 1971) is a Swedish paralympic athlete who has participated in various swimming, cross-country skiing, mountain bike orienteering and canoeing events. As a swimmer, she qualified for the 1992 Paralympic Games but finished outside of medal considerations. At the 2014 Paralympics in Sochi, Ripa won a gold medal in cross-country skiing, in her first Paralympic skiing event and subsequently also a silver medal. She competed in the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro in canoeing, marking three paralympic appearances in three different sports.
Sports career
Swimming
At the age of fourteen, Helene Ripa was diagnosed with cancer in her right leg and doctors were forced to amputate her leg above the knee. Following her rehabilitation, she took up swimming. She swam for Nacka HI, representing the club winning several championships between 1988 and 1993. Amongst these were 23 Swedish Championship medals, ten of those gold; she also won four medals at the European Championship in Barcelona in 1991, including one gold medal. She won five medals during the swimming championships in 1993, three of them were gold medals. Ripa qualified for the 1992 Paralympic Games but did not win any medals.
In 1993, she was forced to end her swimming career due to injuries, opting instead to learn interior decorating. This allowed her to move to New York City to work as an interior decorator. Following her stay in New York, Ripa returned to Stockholm, where she started her own dressmaking business which specialized in home decorating. Her dressmaking business lasted for about seven years.
Skiing
In 2003, she met her future husband Ronnie Pettersson, whose athletic interests motivated her back into sports. This time she participated in cycling, paddling and skiing. In 2011 in Tjejvasan, Ripa competed in a cross-country skiing event for the first time. In 2012, she qualified for Sweden's cross-country national team. Following several good results, she placed sixth in the Total World Cup IPC Nordic Skiing 2012/13.
At the 2014 Paralympics in Sochi, Ripa won a gold medal in the 15 km classic cross-country event. It was her first Paralympic start as a competitive skier. By winning the event, she became Sweden's first Paralympic Winter Games gold medalist since the 1994 Winter Paralympics in Lillehammer. In the mix-relay, she competed with Zebastian Modin and the duo won a silver medal. Ripa was nominated for Bragdguldet, Jerringpriset ("The Jerring Award") and "Achievement of the Year" at the Svenska Idrottsgalan ("Sweedish Athletics Gala") for her success at the 2014 Games.
Mountain bike orienteering
Ripa also competes in mountain bike orienteering (MTB-O) in which she competes for Haninge SOK. She placed second in 0-Ringen which was held in Boden, Sweden in 2013, and won silver at the Swedish championships in Eksjö in 2014. At the Swedish Championships in Söderhamn in 2015, Ripa won a silver medal in sprint.
Canoeing
In the summer of 2015, Ripa started training and competing in canoeing for Brunnsvikens Kanotklubb. She initially considered it as a complement to her skiing. At the World Championships in Duisburg, Germany in May 2016, Ripa qualified for the final, and in doing so, also qualified for the Canoe sprint at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. Para-canoeing was for the first time an event at the Paralympic Games with possibility to compete in three different classes: KL1, KL2 and KL3 for K-1 200 metres. During the European championships in Moscow in June 2016, Ripa won the gold medal for K-1 200 metres in the KL3 class. In the final of KL3 200-metre canoe sprint, she finished in fifth place at the Rio Paralympics.
Media
Ripa presented the Sveriges Radio show Sommar i P1 ("Summer on P1") on 1 July 2014 where she described her life and career. She then went on to appear on the televised after-show Sommarpratarna ("Summer conversations") which was broadcast on SVT in November 2014. Ripa participated in the TV4 game show Fort Boyard in 2014 where she teamed up with Thomas Wassberg and Jonas Hallberg to take on the physical challenges of the game show.