Johanna Welin (born 24 June 1984) is a Swedish-born German 2.0 point wheelchair basketball player. She played for USC Munich in the German wheelchair basketball league, and for the national team that won the gold medal at the

2012 Summer Paralympics The 2012 Summer Paralympics, branded as the London 2012 Paralympic Games, were an international multi-sport parasports event held from 29 August to 9 September 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. They were the 14th Summer Paralympic Gam ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, after which President Joachim Gauck awarded the team with the '' Silbernes Lorbeerblatt'' (Silver Laurel Leaf).

Biography

Johanna Welin was born on 24 June 1984 in

Pajala Pajala () is a locality and the seat of Pajala Municipality in Norrbotten County, Sweden, with 1,958 inhabitants in 2010. It is located in Swedish Lapland. Pajala is in the Torne Valley and was dominated by people speaking a Finnish dialect until ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

, a small town near the border between Sweden and Finland about north of the

Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the most northerly of the five major circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth. Its southern equivalent is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circle marks the southernmost latitude at w ...

. She has played

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

for Töreboda IK in the Swedish league. In the winter, her passion was

snowboarding Snowboarding is a recreational and competitive activity that involves descending a snow-covered surface while standing on a snowboard that is almost always attached to a rider's feet. It features in the Winter Olympic Games and Winter Paralympi ...

, until a bad fall in a snowboarding competition at

Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...

in January 2004 left her paralysed from the waist down. She then took up wheelchair basketball, playing for GRBK Gothenburg in the Swedish league, but Sweden had no national women's team. She spent two semesters studying German in

Insbruck Innsbruck (; bar, Innschbruck, label=Austro-Bavarian ) is the capital of Tyrol and the fifth-largest city in Austria. On the River Inn, at its junction with the Wipp Valley, which provides access to the Brenner Pass to the south, it had a pop ...

, but there was no wheelchair basketball team there, and she began playing for USC Munich, initially for their second team. There, she caught the attention of Holger Glinicki, the coach of the German national team, who asked her if she would like to play for the German national team. She took German citizenship, a relatively painless procedure for an athlete, and made the German national team, which went on to win gold at the 2011 European Championships in Nazareth, Israel, defeating the Netherlands in the final, 48–42. In June 2012 she was named as part of the team that competed at the

2012 Summer Paralympic Games The 2012 Summer Paralympics, branded as the London 2012 Paralympic Games, were an international Multi-sport event, multi-sport parasports event held from 29 August to 9 September 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. They were the 14th Sum ...

, where they faced the

Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team The Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team is the women's wheelchair basketball side that represents Australia in international competitions. The team is known as the Gliders. The team hasn't won a gold medal for Australia since i ...

, a team that had defeated them 48–46 in Sydney just a few months before. They defeated the Australians 44–58 in front of a capacity crowd of over 12,000 at the

North Greenwich Arena The O2 Arena, commonly known as the O2 (stylised as The O2 arena), is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the centre of the O2 entertainment complex on the Greenwich Peninsula in southeast London. It opened in its present form in 2007. It has the s ...

to win the gold medal, the first that Germany had won in women's wheelchair basketball at the Paralympics since 1984. They were awarded another Silver Laurel Leaf by President Joachim Gauck in November 2012 and were again named Team of the Year for 2012. In February 2013, Welin's name was entered in the Golden Book of Munich. The German team claimed silver at the

2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship Separate men's and women's Wheelchair Basketball World Championship tournaments were held in 2014. The women's tournament was held at the Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto, Canada between 20 and 28 June 2014. It was the largest women's ...

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, Ontario, Canada, and beat the Netherlands in the 2015 European Championships, to claim its tenth European title. At the

2016 Paralympic Games ) , nations = 159 , athletes = 4,342 , opening = 7 September , closing = 18 September , opened_by = President Michel Temer , cauldron = Clodoaldo Silva , events = 528 in 22 sports , stadium = Maracanã , sum ...

, it won silver after losing the final to the United States. She has modelled for the advertising campaigns of team sponsors ING DiBa and LoFric, and is currently studying medicine in Munich.

Achievements

*2011: Gold European Championships (Nazareth, Israel) *2012: Gold Paralympic Games (London, England) *2013: Silver European Championships (Frankfurt, Germany) *2014: Silver at the World Championships (Toronto, Canada) * 2015: Gold at the European Championships (

Worcester Worcester may refer to: Places United Kingdom * Worcester, England, a city and the county town of Worcestershire in England ** Worcester (UK Parliament constituency), an area represented by a Member of Parliament * Worcester Park, London, Englan ...

, England) * 2016: Silver at the Paralympic Games (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

Awards

*2012: Team of the Year *2012: Silver Laurel Leaf *2013: Entry in the Golden Book of Munich

References

* Interview with Johanna Welin.

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Welin, Johanna 1984 births German women's wheelchair basketball players Living people Naturalized citizens of Germany Paralympic gold medalists for Germany Paralympic wheelchair basketball players of Germany People from Pajala Municipality Recipients of the Silver Laurel Leaf Swedish emigrants to Germany Wheelchair basketball players at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Wheelchair basketball players at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Paralympic silver medalists for Germany Paralympic medalists in wheelchair basketball