Gemma Collis

Gemma Collis started fencing during her time at university in 2011. After less than a year in the sport, she competed in the London 2012 Paralympics for the Women’s Team Epee, where they made the quarter-final stages.

She then competed in the 2016 Rio Paralympics, where she was ranked eighth in the Women’s Category A Epee.

In 2018 Gemma Collis claimed her first World Cup gold medal with a 15-13 win over Hungary’s Zsuzsanna Krajnyák, at the Wheelchair Fencing World Cup in Montreal, 2018. She made history as the first British woman to win a World Cup.

Gemma qualified and competed for the 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo. She competed in Individual Category A Epee, finishing 10th and the Sabre, finishing 13th.

Gemma also competed in the Paris 2024 Paralympics.

On a typical morning before a tournament, Gemma will listen to the song I’ll Make a Man Out of You from Mulan and will watch Cool Runnings.

She is the Chair of the Wheelchair Fencing Athlete Council.

EDUCATION

University: Durham University where she studied law.

ATHLETE QUOTES

“I just love fencing. The adrenaline rush. The competition. I’d be lost without it.”

“The attitude I had gained from getting a disability in the first place was all about focusing on what you can do and not what you can’t.”

“Sport means being part of a community and group of people that feel like family. It is a sense of belonging extended as far as it can reach.”