Judith Hamer (born 3 December 1990) is a 4.0 point British wheelchair basketball player who represented Great Britain at the

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

and

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 ...

. She won a

Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Award The Diana Award honours young people who work to improve the lives of others. Named after Diana, Princess of Wales, the award was established in 1999 by a board chaired by Gordon Brown. The award was launched by former UK Prime Minister Gordon ...

for bravery and trekked across the

Andes Mountains The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the List of mountain ranges#Mountain ranges by length, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range i ...

in Ecuador as part of a reality television show, '' Beyond Boundaries''.

Biography

Judith Hamer was born in

Plymouth Plymouth () is a port city and unitary authority in South West England. It is located on the south coast of Devon, approximately south-west of Exeter and south-west of London. It is bordered by Cornwall to the west and south-west. Plymouth ...

on 3 December 1990, with a short thigh bone in her right leg. She could walk wearing crutches and special shoes. After some 18 operations over thirteen years to attempt to correct it, and with her

GCSE The General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) is an academic qualification in a particular subject, taken in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. State schools in Scotland use the Scottish Qualifications Certificate instead. Private sc ...

exams approaching, she told the doctors that enough was enough. In 2006 she had her right leg amputated below the knee. She won a

for bravery. A few months later, she hiked across the

in Ecuador as part of a reality television show, '' Beyond Boundaries''. The idea of playing sport had not been uppermost in her mind, but in 2007 she became interested in wheelchair basketball. She attended a UK Sport Talent Day, and began playing for a local club in

Exeter Exeter () is a city in Devon, South West England. It is situated on the River Exe, approximately northeast of Plymouth and southwest of Bristol. In Roman Britain, Exeter was established as the base of Legio II Augusta under the personal comm ...

, the Otters in 2007, as a

4.0 point player 4-point player is a disability sport classification for wheelchair basketball. Players in this class have normal trunk function but have a reduced level of functioning in one or both of their lower limbs. They may have difficulty with sideways mov ...

. The

Lord's Taverners The Lord's Taverners is the UK's leading youth cricket and disability sports charity. Its charitable objective is to empower and positively impact the lives of young people facing the challenges of inequality.'. It was founded in 1950 by a group ...

gave her a £2,000 custom-made wheelchair basketball chair. in 2009, she made her international debut at the

Paralympic World Cup The Paralympic World Cup is an annual international multi-sport event for elite athletes with a disability, that has been hosted in Manchester, England, since 2005. It is organized by the British Paralympic Association (BPA) in coordination with t ...

. She played with the national side at the European championships, at which they won bronze. They went on to win bronze again in 2011, 2013 and 2015. Hamer won bronze at the Women's U25 World Championships in St Catharines, Ontario in 2011, and silver at the Women's U25 European Championships in 2013. She was also part of the team at the

2012 Paralympic Games 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 ...

in London. "I think we may be at our best for

Rio Rio or Río is the Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Maltese word for "river". When spoken on its own, the word often means Rio de Janeiro, a major city in Brazil. Rio or Río may also refer to: Geography Brazil * Rio de Janeiro * Rio do Sul, a ...

in 2016," she told reporters beforehand, "but 2012 will be the biggest thing I ever do, and I won't be able to play at a home Paralympics ever again." The British women's wheelchair basketball team came 7th in London; but Hamer, now a biochemistry student at the University of Worcester, was selected as part of the team for the

. The British team produced its best ever performance at the Paralympics, making it to the semi-finals, but lost to the United States, and then the bronze medal match to the Netherlands.

Personal life

Hamer is in a relationship with

Lauren Rowles Lauren Rachel Catherine Rowles, (born 24 April 1998) is a British parasport rower and former wheelchair athlete. She won gold with Laurence Whiteley in the trunk-arms mixed double sculls (TAMix2x) at the 2016 Summer Paralympics.The pair repeat ...

, a parasport rower.

Achievements

* 2009: Bronze at European Wheelchair Basketball Championship (

Stoke Mandeville Stoke Mandeville is a village and civil parish in the Vale of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located three miles (4.9 km) from Aylesbury and 3.4 miles (5.5 km) from the market town of Wendover. Although a separate civil p ...

, United Kingdom) * 2010: Sixth at

2010 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship The 2010 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship was held in Birmingham, Great Britain from 7 to 17 July 2010. Both the men's and women's tournaments were held. The Championships was a qualifying event for the London 2012 Paralympic Games. ...

( Birmingham, United Kingdom) * 2011: Bronze at European Wheelchair Basketball Championship (

Nazareth Nazareth ( ; ar, النَّاصِرَة, ''an-Nāṣira''; he, נָצְרַת, ''Nāṣəraṯ''; arc, ܢܨܪܬ, ''Naṣrath'') is the largest city in the Northern District of Israel. Nazareth is known as "the Arab capital of Israel". In ...

, Israel) * 2012: Seventh at

( London, United Kingdom) * 2013: Bronze at European Championships ( Frankfurt, Germany) * 2014: Fifth at the

World Wheelchair Basketball Championship The IWBF World Wheelchair Basketball Championship is an international wheelchair basketball competition contested by the men's and the women's national teams of the members of the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (International Whee ...

( Toronto, Canada) * 2015: Bronze at the European Championships ( Worcester, England) *2016: Fourth at the

2016 Summer Paralympics ) , 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 ...

( Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) * 2017: Bronze at the European Championships ( Tenerife, Spain) * 2018: Silver at the

2018 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship The 2018 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship was held at the Edel-optics.de Arena in Hamburg, Germany, from 16 to 26 August 2018. Both men's and women's tournaments were held, with 12 women's and 16 men's teams competing, representing 19 di ...

( Hamburg, Germany)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamer, Judith Wheelchair basketball players at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Wheelchair basketball players at the 2016 Summer Paralympics Paralympic wheelchair basketball players of Great Britain 1990 births Living people Sportspeople from Derby English amputees British women's wheelchair basketball players 21st-century British women