Mareike Miller (; born 3 August 1990) is a
4.5 point 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, who played for the
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
in the United States. She also plays for the German national team, with which she won two European titles, was runner-up at 2010 and 2014 World Championships, won a 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 ...
in London and won a silver medal at the Rio 2016 Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro. President
Joachim Gauck
Joachim Wilhelm Gauck (; born 24 January 1940) is a German politician and civil rights activist who served as President of Germany from 2012 to 2017. A former Lutheran pastor, he came to prominence as an anti-communist civil rights activist in E ...
awarded the team Germany's highest sporting honour, the ''
Silbernes Lorbeerblatt
Silbernes Lorbeerblatt (Silver Laurel Leaf), the highest sports award in Germany, was endowed on 23 June 1950 by the German President Theodor Heuss. It is awarded to athletes and teams of exemplary character that have won medals at Olympic and ...
'' (Silver Laurel Leaf), twice (2012 and 2016).
Biography
Mareike Miller was born on 3 August 1990,
the daughter of Karl-Heinz and Kristin. She has a brother, Nils.
She is nicknamed "MA".
Miller began playing
basketball
Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...
at the age of seven, and made her debut with a women's senior club team in Germany when she was 14.
In that first game, she suffered a
torn anterior cruciate ligament.
Over the next four years, she underwent knee surgery four times, three in the right knee, and once in the left, leaving her knees scarred.
On each occasion she took eight months to recover, and ruptured an anterior cruciate ligament within weeks of returning to playing.
At the age of 18, Miller was forced to give up her dream of playing basketball.
However, her physical education teacher suggested that she try
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 ...
, a sport she had never heard of. Although she is a wheelchair basketball player, Miller does not require a wheelchair for everyday activities, and is classified as a
4.5 point player
4.5-point player is a disability sport classification for wheelchair basketball. Players in this class tend to have normal trunk movement, few problems with side-to-side movements, and ability to reach to the side of their chair. Players generall ...
with a minimal disability. Being able to move her body fully gives the tall
center
Center or centre may refer to:
Mathematics
*Center (geometry), the middle of an object
* Center (algebra), used in various contexts
** Center (group theory)
** Center (ring theory)
* Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentrici ...
a height advantage, but she found that shooting from the
free throw line in a chair requires as much force as shooting standing from the
three-point line.
When Miller took up wheelchair basketball in 2008, she was not thinking of making the national team, but with hard work and daily practice,
she made it in just one year. That year she started playing for ASV Bonn in the German regional league.
In 2009, she began attending
University of Wisconsin-Whitewater
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
in the United States, where she studied business administration. She found the workload much higher than in Germany. Whereas most German clubs trained only two of three times a week, training in the United States was every day, with weight and training rooms available 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
While in Germany for summer breaks, she trained with the second division team
Essen Hot Rolling Bears and travelled twice a week to
Cologne
Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 million inhabitants in the city proper and 3.6 millio ...
to train with the Köln 99ers.
In 2011, she captained the German Under 25 (U25) National team, competing at their first ever World Championships.
In March 2012, her UWW Warhawks team, coached by Daniel T. Price, defeated the
University of Alabama
The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, or Bama) is a public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of Alabama is the oldest and largest of the publi ...
63–34 to win the US Intercollegiate National Championships in a game in which Miller scored 17 points and had 13
rebounds
'Rebound' is a term used in sports to describe the ball (or puck or other object of play) becoming available for possession by either opponent after an attempt to put the ball or puck into the goal has been unsuccessful. Rebounds are generally ...
.
Later that year, Miller headed to Australia, Netherlands and
Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina. Located in the Piedmont region, it is the county seat of Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 census, making Charlotte the 16th-most populo ...
for training camps with the German women's wheelchair basketball national team before 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 ...
in London.
In the Gold Medal match in London, the team faced the
Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team,
who had defeated them 48–46 in Sydney just a few months before, in front of a crowd of over 12,000 at the
North Greenwich Arena.
The German team had been undefeated up to that point, but had started off slow in its games against the United States and China, winning these games by six-point margins, and seemed to play its best basketball only in the final minutes of a game.
Miller scored 19 points, more than any other player in the match, and was a key factor in Germany winning 58–44. "Most of my shots weren’t even any crazy shots or any outside shots", Miller said. "They were the same shots I took in the others games, but I played more in this game, and I had many more easy opportunities getting into the paint."
"I’m always one of the shooters, but I think Australia underestimated me and didn’t defend me as well as some of the other girls. They left me open a lot and I got some big shots, so it went well for me. It just worked out that I scored the most points in the final, but it wasn’t deliberate."
It was the first gold medal that Germany had won in women's wheelchair basketball at the Paralympics since 1984.
They were awarded the Silver Laurel Leaf by President
Joachim Gauck
Joachim Wilhelm Gauck (; born 24 January 1940) is a German politician and civil rights activist who served as President of Germany from 2012 to 2017. A former Lutheran pastor, he came to prominence as an anti-communist civil rights activist in E ...
in November 2012,
and were named German Team of the Year for 2012.
"Many times, I was told that after winning a gold medal, I have achieved the most I can, so I could quit now," Miller later wrote, "But I disagree."
![Mareike_Miller_2014](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8e/Mareike_Miller_2014.jpg)
After a devastating loss in the European Championship final on home soil in 2013, 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 ...
in
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 anch ...
, Canada,
2015, Miller had to have more surgeries on her knees and thus could not play with the German team. At the
2016 Paralympic Games
The 2016 Summer Paralympics (), the 15th Summer Paralympic Games, were a major international multi-sport event for disabled sports, athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, fro ...
, she returned and won silver after losing the final to the United States.
After the 2016 Paralympic Games, several athletes and the German national team head coach retired. Miller remained as one of the experienced players of the team, now playing for Martin Otto, the PE teacher who got her to play the sport in the first place. As part of the captain trio, she led her team to another European Championship silver medal in 2017, showing that the team even with many changes is continuing on a high level.
2018 marks the year of World Championships in Hamburg, Germany. Miller will captain the team competing in front of her home crowds as she also currently lives in Hamburg and plays for the professional team BG Baskets Hamburg.
Achievements
*2009: Gold at the European Championships
*2009: Silver at German Women's National Championships
*2010: Silver at the Women's World Championships
*2010: Bronze at the U22 mixed European Championships
*2010: Gold at German Women's National Championships
*2011: Silver at German Women's National Championships
*2011: Gold at the European Championships (Nazareth, Israel)
*2012: Intercollegiate Champion
*2012: Silver at German Women's National Championships
*2012: Gold at the Paralympic Games (London, England)
*2013: Intercollegiate Champion
*2013: Silver European Championships (Frankfurt, Germany)
*2014: Intercollegiate Champion
*2014: Silver at the World Championships (Toronto, Canada)
* 2016: Silver at the Paralympic Games (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
* 2017: Silver European Championships
* 2018: Bronze at the World Championships (Hamburg, Germany)
Awards
*2011, 2012, 2014, 2016: Team of the Year
*2012 and 2014: Silver Laurel Leaf
References
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miller, Mareike
1990 births
Living people
German women's wheelchair basketball players
Paralympic wheelchair basketball players of Germany
Paralympic gold medalists for Germany
Paralympic silver medalists for Germany
Paralympic medalists in wheelchair basketball
Wheelchair basketball players at the 2012 Summer Paralympics
Wheelchair basketball players at the 2016 Summer Paralympics
Wheelchair basketball players at the 2020 Summer Paralympics
Medalists at the 2012 Summer Paralympics
Medalists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics
Recipients of the Silver Laurel Leaf
Centers (basketball)