Liesl Tesch

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Liesl Tesch, London 2012 with gold medal
Liesl Tesch shoots a lay-up during the game against Brazil at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games.

Liesl Dorothy Tesch , AM (born May 17, 1969 in Brisbane , Australia ) is an Australian sailor, politician and wheelchair athlete . She competed in five Paralympics on her national wheelchair basketball team, won three medals and was the first woman to practice the sport professionally. She started sailing in 2010 and won gold medals with her partner Daniel Fitzgibbon at the Paralympics in London in 2012 and in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

Life

Tesch attended Toronto High School, where she played on the state basketball team. At the age of 19, she sustained a spine injury in a mountain bike accident. The incomplete paraplegia she suffered as a result meant that she could no longer use her lower legs. She studied at the University of Newcastle , where she received a Bachelor of Science in 1990 and a Diploma of Education in 1991. From 1992 to 2017 she taught as a geography teacher at the high school in the coastal town of Woy Woy.

Athletic career

Wheelchair basketball

From 1990 to 2008 Tesch was a member of the Australian women's wheelchair basketball team. She started playing wheelchair basketball after one of her physical therapists discovered her throwing skills during her rehabilitation. Shortly after joining the New South Wales team, she took part in the 1990 World Cup and in 1992 in the Barcelona Games. She was part of the Australian team at the 1996 Summer Paralympics in Atlanta and was vice-captain of the team at the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney , where she won a silver medal. During the post-game celebrations, some players from Europe invited them to play on professional men's teams. For more than five years she was the first woman in the world to play professionally wheelchair basketball in Madrid , Sardinia and Paris as part of the European men's league. She helped set up a women's wheelchair basketball league and competed in women's teams in Italy and France . With the Australian team she won silver at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens and bronze at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing . In 2011 she retired from the national wheelchair basketball team to focus on sailing.

She was known to dye her hair green and gold during her Paralympic wheelchair basketball career.

Liesl Tesch with her silver medal at the Paralympic Games 2000 in Sydney

Career in sailing

Liesl Tesch and Daniel Fitzgibbon at the 2012 Summer Paralympics

In 2009 Tesch took part in the Sydney Hobart Yacht Race for sailors with disabilities. In 2010 she formed a sailing partnership with the Beijing silver medalist Daniel Fitzgibbon . After less than a month of training, they won their first competition at the Sailing World Cup in Miami . With the two-man SKUD 18, the team won gold at the ISAF Gold Cup in January 2011 and a bronze medal at the IFDS World Championships in July of the same year. They won a gold medal at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London .

At the 2014 IFDS World Championships in Halifax , Canada, and at the 2015 IFDS World Championships in Melbourne , Tesch won the gold medal together with Fitzgibbon. At the World Championships in 2016 in Medemblik , the Netherlands, and in 2014 in Weymouth (Dorset) , they won the bronze medal in the SKUD 18 class. Tesch and Fitzgibbon won eight of eleven races at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro and came second in the other three races.

Political career

In 2010, Tesch co-founded Sports Matters, a charity that promotes sport for people with disabilities in developing countries. In 2010 she conducted wheelchair basketball trainings in Vientiane , Laos , to raise awareness of disabilities and to raise awareness of the help for UXO victims in Laos.

In 2013, Tesch became a member of the Australian Labor Party and was selected for the Gosford constituency by-election in 2017 . She won the election on April 8, 2017 and thus entered the New South Wales Legislative Assembly , the lower house of the New South Wales Parliament .

Liesl Tesch conducts wheelchair basketball trainings in Vientiane to raise awareness of disabilities and to draw attention to the help for UXO victims in Laos. Laos 2010
Australian Paralympian of the Year 2012 ceremony at Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, Australia

Honors

  • 2000: Australian Sports Medal
  • 2012: Australian Paralympian of the Year, together with Fitzgibbon
  • 2014: Member of the Order of Australia
  • 2014: Yachting Australia Sailor of the Year with Disability Award
  • 2014: NSW Sports Award as Team of the Year with Disabilities, with Fitzgibbon
  • 2014: Sir Roden Cutler Award, Primary Club of Australia
  • 2015: Disability Award for Arthur J Gallaghers Team of the Year, together with Fitzgibbon
  • 2016: Basketball Hall of Fame
  • 2016: President's Award at the Australian Sailing Awards
  • 2016: Paralympics Australia award with Fitzgibbon
  • 2017: Australian Sailing Hall of Fame

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Liesl Tesch - Sailing, Wheelchair Basketball | Paralympic Athlete Profiles. Retrieved July 29, 2021 .
  2. ↑ WorkCover Authority of New South Wales - Liesl Tesch. March 28, 2011, accessed July 29, 2021 .
  3. ↑ Gold for Australian Paralympic crew at Miami OCR - Australian Sailing News - YACHTe.com.au. June 17, 2012, accessed July 29, 2021 .
  4. ^ Sports News. April 15, 2013, accessed July 29, 2021 .
  5. ↑ 2-person Keelboat (SKUD18). September 23, 2016, accessed July 29, 2021 .
  6. ^ Daniel Fitzgibbon OAM and Liesl Tesch AM. Retrieved July 29, 2021 .
  7. ↑ Claims ALP candidate Liesl Tesch 'parachuted' into Central Coast seat. Retrieved February 23, 2017, July 29, 2021 (Australian English).
  8. ↑ Labor candidate Liesl Tesch claims NSW seat of Gosford. Retrieved July 29, 2021 .
  9. ↑ Fitzgibbon and Tesch claim top NSW Sports Award for Team of the Year. Retrieved July 29, 2021 .
  10. ↑ Amanda Lulham: Paralympian Liesl Tesch picks up Australian Sailing's President's Award. October 30, 2016, accessed July 29, 2021 .
  11. ↑ Amanda Lulham: Liesl Tesch, Jenny Whittle, Jeanie Kupsch inducted into basketball Hall of Fame. October 23, 2016, accessed July 29, 2021 .
personal data
SURNAME Tesch, Liesl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Tesch, Liesl Dorothy (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian sailor, politician and wheelchair athlete
BIRTH DATE 17th May 1969
PLACE OF BIRTH Brisbane , Australia