Liesl Dorothy Tesch AM (born 17 May 1969) is an Australian

wheelchair basketball Wheelchair basketball is basketball played by people with varying physical disabilities that disqualify them from playing a non-disabled sport. These include spina bifida, birth defects, cerebral palsy, paralysis due to accident, amputations (of ...

player, sailor, and politician. She is a Labor Party member of the

New South Wales Legislative Assembly The New South Wales Legislative Assembly is the lower of the two houses of the Parliament of New South Wales, an Australian state. The upper house is the New South Wales Legislative Council. Both the Assembly and Council sit at Parliament Ho ...

, representing

Gosford Gosford is the city and administrative centre of the Central Coast Council local government area in the heart of the Central Coast region, about north of Sydney and about south of Newcastle. The city centre is situated at the northern extr ...

since the 2017 Gosford state by-election. Tesch became an incomplete paraplegic after a mountain bike accident at the age of 19. She competed in her national wheelchair basketball team at five paralympics, winning three medals, and was the first woman to play the sport professionally. She took up sailing in 2010, winning gold medals at the 2012 London and

2016 Rio 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 , su ...

with partner

Daniel Fitzgibbon Daniel Fitzgibbon, (born 15 June 1976) is an Australian Paralympic sailor, who won a silver medal at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing. He won gold medals at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Paralympics with partner Liesl Tesch in the two per ...

Early life

Tesch was born in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Queensland, and the third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of approximately 2.6 million. Brisbane lies at the centre of the South ...

on 17 May 1969. In a 2012 interview, she described her parents as "alternative" and said of her father that he would have rather philosophised than worked "because he didn't like working for a capitalist society. ... We lived off the land as much as we could, eating roadkill." She grew up in Brisbane, New Zealand, and the Lake Macquarie suburb of Coal Point, and attended Toronto High School. She participated in basketball, swimming, sailing,

windsurfing Windsurfing is a wind propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the aerospace and surf culture of California. Windsurfing ga ...

, and cycling as a child, and was part of the state basketball team in years 11 and 12 at high school. At the age of 19, she broke her back after a mountain-bike accident, becoming an incomplete paraplegic. She received a Bachelor of Science and a

Diploma of Education The Diploma of Education, often abbreviated to DipEd or GradDipEd, is a postgraduate qualification offered in many Commonwealth countries including Australia, Sri Lanka, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. Overview The diploma can build on the g ...

from the University of Newcastle.

Competitive career

Wheelchair Basketball

43 ACPS Atlanta 1996 Basketball Liesl Tesch

Tesch started playing wheelchair basketball after one of her

physiotherapists Physical therapy (PT), also known as physiotherapy, is one of the allied health professions. It is provided by physical therapists who promote, maintain, or restore health through physical examination, diagnosis, management, prognosis, patient ...

noticed how skilled she was at shooting with a foam basketball and

perspex Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) belongs to a group of materials called engineering plastics. It is a transparent thermoplastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and brands Crylux, Plexiglas, Acrylite ...

backboard during her rehabilitation. Shortly after entering the

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

state team, she was invited to try out for and made the Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team in 1990, making her national debut at that year's World Championships and her Paralympic debut at the 1992 Barcelona Games. She was named to the All Star Five at the 1994 Gold Cup, where the Australian team won a bronze medal. She was part of the Australian team at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics, and was named Most Valuable Player at the 1998 Gold Cup. She was the vice-captain of her country's team at the 2000 Sydney Paralympics, where she won a silver medal. During celebrations after the games, some players from Europe invited her to play in professional men's teams there. She accepted this suggestion, and played in Madrid,

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...

, and Paris for the next five years, thus becoming the first woman in the world to play wheelchair basketball professionally. She helped establish a women's wheelchair basketball league on the continent and competed in women's teams in Italy and France. She also competed in the silver medal-winning Australian team at the 2004 Athens Paralympics. She returned home to captain the national squad at the

2008 Beijing Paralympics The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games (), the 13th Summer Paralympic Games, took place in Beijing, China from September 6 to 17, 2008. As with the 2008 Summer Olympics, equestrian events were held in Hong Kong and sailing events in Qingdao. It was f ...

. In 2010, Tesch competed with her team in the Osaka Cup, a competition for the top five women's international wheelchair basketball teams in the world; her team defeated the number one ranked American team 55–37. She was a 4-point player. She retired from the national wheelchair basketball squad in 2011 to concentrate on sailing. She admires

Dawn Fraser Dawn Fraser (born 4 September 1937) is an Australian freestyle champion swimmer and former politician. She is one of only four swimmers to have won the same Olympic individual event three times – in her case the women's 100-metre freestyle. ...

, describing her as "a fellow bad girl not afraid to speak her mind". At the Beijing Paralympics, she smuggled a turtle that she had bought at a market into the Paralympic village, and named it "Tibet" after being ordered to remove it. She was famous for dyeing her hair

green and gold The national colours of Australia are green and gold. They were established by the Governor-General of Australia, Sir Ninian Stephen, on 19 April 1984 in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette; on advice from Prime Minister Bob Hawke. The go ...

during her Paralympic wheelchair basketball career.

Sailing

In 2009 Tesch participated in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race on ''Sailors with Disabilities''. After seeing an SBS documentary about the journey, Beijing silver medallist

contacted her in late 2010 and they formed a sailing partnership. Sailing the two-person SKUD 18 with Fitzgibbon, the team had immediate success, winning gold at the

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Gold Cup in January 2011 and a bronze medal at the IFDS World Championships in July of that year. They won a gold medal with a race to spare at the London 2012 Paralympic sailing competition held at Weymouth and Portland. Tesch's mother had died of cancer after her first day of racing at the games; shortly after winning the gold medal, she said it was "a beautiful way to celebrate my mum's life to win gold on a beautiful sunny day at the Paralympic Games". At the 2014 IFDS World Championships in Halifax, Canada, Tesch teamed with Fitzgibbon to win the two-person SKUD 18 class. Tesch and Fitzgibbon won the 2015 IFDS World Championships in Melbourne. Tesch and Fitzgibbon won the bronze medal in the SKUD 18 class at the 2016 World Championships held in Medemblik, Netherlands. On 20 June 2016, Tesch was robbed of her bicycle at gunpoint while on a fitness ride with her physiotherapist in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a ...

, in preparation for that year's Paralympics. She was uninjured but shaken after the attack. Tesch and Fitzgibbon won back to back Paralympic gold medals by winning the SKUD18 at the

. They won eight out of 11 races and came second in the other three.

Political career

In February 2017, Tesch was selected by the Labor Party to contest the Gosford state by-election. The

electorate of

had been held by the Labor Party's Kathy Smith, who had resigned due to ill health. Tesch won the election, held on 8 April 2017.

Personal life

Before entering politics, Tesch worked as a high school teacher. In 2010, she co-founded Sports Matters, a charity that promotes sport for people with disabilities in developing countries. She lives with her partner, Mark, a boat-builder and frequent competitor in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race; the couple met while preparing for the competition in 2009.

Recognition

In 2000, Tesch received an

Australian Sports Medal The Australian Sports Medal is an award given to recognise achievements in Australian sport to commemorate Australian participation in major sporting events. Original recipients of the award included competitors, coaches, sports scientists, offi ...

. She and Fitzgibbon were jointly named as Sailors of the Year with a Disability in 2011. She was appointed a

Member of the Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an Order (distinction), honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Monarchy of Australia, Queen of Aus ...

in the 2014

Australia Day Honours The Australian honours and awards system refers to all Order (distinction), orders, decorations, and medals, as instituted by letters patent from the Monarchy of Australia, Monarch of Australia and countersigned by the Australian prime minister a ...

"for significant service to sport as a gold medallist at the London 2012 Paralympic Games, and through the promotion and facilitation of sport for people with disabilities." In November 2014, Tesch shared the Yachting Australia Sailor of the Year with a Disability award with

, Colin Harrison,

Jonathan Harris Jonathan Harris (born Jonathan Daniel Charasuchin, November 6, 1914 – November 3, 2002) was an American character actor whose career included more than 500 television and film appearances, as well as voiceovers. Two of his best-known roles w ...

, Russell Boaden and

Matthew Bugg Matthew Bugg (born 25 February 1981) is an Australian sailor. He represented Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in the 2.4mR class sailing event. He won a bronze medal at the 2015 IFDS World Cha ...

. The Australian team of six sailors beat Great Britain by one point at the IFDS World Championship. Tesch and Fitzgibbon won the 2014 NSW Sports Award for Team of the Year with a Disability. In November 2014, Tesch was awarded The Primary Club of Australia's Sir Roden Cutler Award acknowledging an outstanding sporting achievement by an athlete with a disability. In November 2015, Tesch and Fitzgibbon were awarded Yachting Australia's 2015 Sailor of the Year with a Disability. In 2016, Tesch was inducted into

Basketball Australia Basketball Australia is the governing and controlling body of basketball in Australia, responsible for the development and promotion of the sport at all levels. Basketball Australia sanctions Australia's two professional leagues, the Nation ...

's Hall of Fame. In 2016, she was awarded the President's Award at the Australian Sailing Awards. At the 2016 Australian Paralympic Committee awards, she was awarded the Uncle

Kevin Coombs Kevin Richard Coombs, OAM PLY (born 30 May 1941) is an Australian wheelchair basketballer and athlete who competed at 5 Paralympics including the first Paralympic Games in 1960. He was the first Australian Aboriginal Paralympic competitor for ...

Medal for the Spirit of The Games. In November 2017, Tesch and

were inaugural inductees to the Australian Sailing Hall of Fame. In 2022, she was inducted into the

New South Wales Hall of Champions The New South Wales Hall of Champions is a museum at Australia Avenue, Sydney Olympic Park, New South Wales, Australia. The property is owned by State Sports Centre Trust (State Government). The museum's collection was added to the New South Wa ...

References

External links