TOKYO, Japan, December 25, 2025 – Honda Motor Co., Ltd. today announced that wheelchair racer Catherine Debrunner, supported by Honda with Honda racing wheelchairs, won the Best Female (Summer Sports) category of the Para Sport Awards 2025, organized by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). This marks the first ever Para Sport Award for Debrunner.

The Para Sport Awards are presented once every two years to celebrate individuals and organizations whose efforts have strengthened the global impact of parasports. Positioned as the highest honor among the awards presented by the IPC, the Para Sport Awards recognize summer and winter sports athletes, as well as coaches, IPC members, and volunteers.

The winners of this year’s Para Sport Awards were selected from more than 200 nominees for the eleven categories based on achievements from May 1, 2023 to March 31, 2025. 

Debrunner delivered extraordinary performances at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, winning five golds and one silver. She also set new world records in five T53/54 wheelchair racing events — 100m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, and marathon — within the period considered for the awards. These accomplishments earned her the award in the Best Female (Summer Sports) category.

Honda has been supporting Debrunner since 2023, inspired by her continuous drive to take on challenges, aiming for new heights.

Based on the Honda vision for its sports activities – “To increase the number of people who take on challenges through sports activities and make the lives of all people more enjoyable” – Honda will continue to support various athletes who take on challenges toward the realization of their own dreams.

“Receiving this award is an incredible and unexpected honor. My achievements are the result of years of hard teamwork — so many people have contributed a piece to the puzzle, and that’s something I never take for granted. I see it as a huge privilege to live my passion and hope it inspires young wheelchair athletes to dream big and believe in the impossible.”

Date of birth: April 11, 1995
Nationality: Switzerland
Start of Honda sponsorship: December 2023
Sport class: T53
Sport: Wheelchair racing (100m, 400m, 800m, 1500m, 5000m, marathon)

In the spirit of “Respect for the Individual,” one of the company’s Fundamental Beliefs, Honda has been striving to offer the joy and freedom of mobility to all customers around the world and contribute to their efforts to realize their dreams. As a part of this initiative, Honda has been conducting research and development of racing wheelchairs since 2000. In addition to providing them to the wheelchair athletes Honda supports, Honda made its racing wheelchairs available for sale to any customers since 2019.

Moreover, to further advance and popularize wheelchair sports, Honda has gone beyond the enhancement of product performance and developed a “Push Power Measurement Wheel System” to provide technological support that will enhance the abilities of wheelchair athletes. The system has been available for rental since November 2025^*. 

Through these activities, Honda will contribute to the further recognition of wheelchair athletics and the popularization and advancement of parasports.

*Honda Push Power Measurement Wheel System is available for rental through Honda Sun Co., Ltd., a special subsidiary of Honda.

About Honda racing wheelchairs and Push Power Measurement Wheel System:
https://racer.honda-sun.co.jp/en/

About Honda wheelchair athletics activities:
https://global.honda/en/sports/wheelchair_racing/

About Honda racing wheelchair technologies:
https://global.honda/jp/tech/wheelchair_racing/kakeru/ (Japanese)　

About Honda sports activities:
https://global.honda/en/sports/