Angélina Lanza

Meet Angélina Lanza, a disabled athlete, two-time European champion in the 200m and long jump category, working as communications manager in charge of external works and safety.

Published on 12/06/2024

Updated on 29/05/2026

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"I fell in love with para athletics" (1:55)

Her career

Angélina Lanza signed her first athletics license in 2003 at AS Beauvert, a neighbourhood club in Grenoble. She was barely 10 years old—an age when children experiment with everything. She tried sprinting, long jump, high jump and even throwing, but settled on the first two disciplines in the end. Why? Because they “gave me a thrill”.

First title

For a decade she competed against non-disabled athletes in every tournament, though she has impaired muscle power in her left arm from a childhood bout with polio. Then, during an umpteenth event in 2010, she was spotted by Jean-Baptiste Souche, coach of France’s para athletic teams. Smart move. Just a few weeks later, Angelina won her first para athletics title at the French Indoor Championships.

Becoming a European champion

But from 2012 to 2014, her progress was slowed by a series of muscle injuries. “My body wasn’t ready to perform at the elite level, and the team and I didn’t fully realize that rebalancing my running style would have such a big impact on my muscles,” Angelina recalls. During this period, she enrolled in a Master’s degree in foreign languages at a university in Lyon.

She returned to the podium at the 2016 European Championships in Grosseto, Italy, winning 3 bronze medals in the T47 category—for the 100 m, 200 m and long jump— for athletes with moderate upper-limb impairment. Two years later, now competing for the Lyon Athlétisme club, she made her mark at the 2018 European Championships in Berlin, where she won gold in both the 200 m sprint and the long jump.

Her success continued at national level. In 2020, she became French indoor champion in the 60m sprint, and in 2024 she earned bronze in the same event. That year, she also competed in the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, finishing 7^th in the long jump final.

“Setting long-term goals”

Alongside her sporting career, Angélina Lanza earned a master’s degree in management and communication from IAE in Lyon. After graduating in 2018, she heard about the SNCF Athletes programme through the French Handisports Federation, and in spring 2019 signed a professional integration agreement with SNCF Group. She now works as a safety communications officer at SNCF Réseau in Lyon.

“As an athlete, I know what it means to set long-term goals and take a big-picture view,” says Angélina. “I’m very happy to put my skills to work for a company like SNCF. It’s great to work here, and the atmosphere is really excellent. That’s because, just like in sport, we’re all moving forward together to achieve shared goals.”