Gizem Girişmen was born on 25th of November 1981 in Ankara, Turkey. She had a spinal cord injury at T5 level after a car accident the summer she finished primary school. She completed high school at Lyceé Tevfik Fikret d’Ankara, following a BSc degree in Business Administration at Bilkent Univesity. She started practicing archery in September 2004 after her graduation from university and bound to archery starting from the first day.
Within one year she had made the national squad by participating 2005 IPC Archery World Championships in Massa Carrara, Italy.
After several national awards, Gizem had 3rd place at 2006 Para-Archery European Championships in Czech Republic. She became Paralympic Champion at 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games by winning a gold medal at Recurve ARW2 event.
Gizem is the first Turkish female athlete to have a gold medal at Paralympic Games. Within the year 2008, she was nominated as “The Sportsperson of the Year” by several organizations and foundations. Following her success in Paralympic Games, she succeeds to have “World Champion” title at 2009 Para-Archery World Championships in Czech Republic. At the same World Championships, Gizem is one the members of the Turkish Recurve Team that won bronze medal. She has been nominated as “Athlete of the Month” by IPC in August 2009. She is the first Turkish athlete to be nominated for Laureus World Sports Awards in 2010.
Gizem had 1st place at IPC World Archery Ranking List between 2007 and 2010. In addition to her sportive career, she is also working at Ministry of Youth and Sports as a Sports Advisor. She graduated from Middle East Technical University Msc. in Social Policy and is currently a PhD student at METU Physical Education and Sports.
She was a governing board member of European Paralympic Committee from 2012 to 2017 and a member of IPC Athlete’s Council from 2012 to 2021.