![[Translate to en:] Olympisches Silber in den Semesterferien: Maschinenwesen-Stud](/news/wire/laura_fuerst_and_the_german_team_win_the_silver_medal-2016-tum/image.jpg)
[Translate to en:] Olympisches Silber in den Semesterferien: Maschinenwesen-Studentin Laura Fürst. (Bild: C Kolb-Murnau / bilderschau.com)Among the athletes who took part in the wheelchair basketball tournament in Rio de Janeiro was one student of the Technical University of Munich (TUM). Laura Fürst was a first-time participant in the Paralympic Games and she and her team won a silver medal right away. The German women’s team, who had entered the tournament as the defending champions, were defeated only by the United States (45:62). Germany and the USA had also played each other in the final game of the 2008 Paralympics.
25-year-old Laura Fürst is from Gräfelfing, a suburb west of Munich. After attaining her bachelor’s degree in Energy and Process Engineering, she began studying for her master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering at TUM. In addition to that, she plays wheelchair basketball for RBB München in the German national league. Fürst, who has been an incomplete quadriplegic since an accident in 2008, has already been successful in several international competitions. In the 2014 world championship she and her team won the silver medal, last year they won the European championship.
