The Ottobock Ambassadors team, consisting of top athletes such as Johannes Floors, Léon Schäfer and Elena Kratter, welcomes a new face: Para-alpine skier Anna-Lena Forster.

With a total of nine Paralympic medals – four of them gold – and 17 medals at the World Championships, the German monoski athlete is one of the most successful athletes in Paralympic winter sports.

The medical technology company is equipping the 28-year-old with wheelchairs as part of a long-term partnership. It is providing an everyday wheelchair as well as a sports wheelchair for training away from the snow. “I look forward to working with Ottobock and enjoying these high-quality wheelchairs. They provide me with independence and mobility”, says Anna-Lena Forster.

Ottobock and Anna-Lena Forster also intend to use this partnership as a platform to increase awareness of people with disabilities. Their shared goal is to focus more intensively on the day-to-day challenges faced by people with disabilities while simultaneously giving heart to those affected and their families.

Paralympian and world champion Gerda Pamler sparked a love of para skiing in her

Anna-Lena was born with a femoral hypoplasia of the left leg and an amelia of the right leg. While her left leg has a severely shortened thigh and missing bones in the tibia, her right leg is missing almost entirely.

Her parents are passionate skiers, so at the age of six, when she was finally big enough for a monoski, Anna-Lena took part in a skiing course given by World Champion and Paralympian Gerda Pamler. After Anna-Lena had completed three ski lessons with her, Gerda Pamler asked if she would like to get a taste of the German junior team – the beginning of an outstanding sporting career.

At the age of just seventeen, she competed in her first European Cup in the 2010–11 season. This was followed by World Cups, World Championships and participation in her first Paralympic Games at Sochi in 2014.

But Anna-Lena's talents aren't confined to sport. In addition to her sports career, she successfully completed her Bachelor’s degree in Psychology and is now aiming to earn a Master’s degree.

Paralympic athlete of 2023 is…

Anna-Lena Forster! After Anna-Lena had another very successful season this year, winning gold in super-G, super combination, slalom and giant slalom, winning the runner-up World Championships title in downhill and winning the overall World Cup, she was a candidate for Para Athlete of 2023, alongside well-known para athletes such as Irmgard Bensusan and Tanja Scholz.

Unfortunately, Anna-Lena could not attend the announcement and award ceremony at the weekend in Düsseldorf, as the ski season is already in full swing. When she connected via video, it was clear to see how happy she was about having won the award. “This is a special prize. It shows how strongly my community supports me,” said Anna-Lena about the award, for which votes could be cast online.