Michaela (Kayla) Bell (born 1996) is a 1.5 point British wheelchair basketball player who played for Great Britain at the Osaka Cup in Japan in 2017 and 2018. Her first major international tournament was 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 (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, where she won silver.

Biography

Michaela (Kayla) Bell comes from

Thatcham Thatcham is an historic market town and civil parish in the English county of Berkshire, centred 3 miles (5 km) east of Newbury, 14 miles (24 km) west of Reading and 54 miles (87 km) west of London. Geography Thatcham straddles t ...

. She began playing wheelchair basketball at the age of nine after she was introduced to the game by a teaching assistant. She is classified as a 1.5 point player, and initially played for the Thames Valley Kings, which she represented in the Under 15 and Under 19 competitions in the Lord Taverners Junior league. She later represented the South East region in the National Junior Championships, England South in the National School games championships, and played for the Sheffield Steelers. In 2017, she presented the Kings' end of season awards. In 2016, she was part of the U25 Women's team that won Great Britain's first ever U25 European title. She then played with the senior team at the Osaka Cup in Japan in 2017 and 2018. In 2018 she was part of the team at the

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, Germany. It was her first major tournament, and the team won silver. This was the best-ever performance of the British women's team, which had never made the finals before. She is a graduate of

Worcester University , motto_lang = la , mottoeng = ''Aspire to Inspire'' , established = 1946 – Worcester Emergency Teacher Training College 1948 – Worcester Teacher Training College 1976 – Worcester College of Higher Education 1997 – ...

with a

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree in business psychology. She received support from Britain's

Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme The Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme, known as TASS, is a scheme of Sport England (UK government-funded) to find and support prospective talented athletes. History Over five hundred athletes are supported by this scheme, in around thirty sport ...

Achievements

* 2018: Silver at the

(

Hamburg (male), (female) en, Hamburger(s), Hamburgian(s) , timezone1 = Central (CET) , utc_offset1 = +1 , timezone1_DST = Central (CEST) , utc_offset1_DST = +2 , postal ...

, Germany)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Kayla British women's wheelchair basketball players 1996 births Living people People from Thatcham Paralympic wheelchair basketball players for Great Britain Alumni of the University of Worcester