Marnie Peters (born in either 1970 or 1971) is a Canadian former wheelchair basketball player and accessibility consultant who won gold medals in each of the women's wheelchair basketball tournament at the

2000 Summer Paralympics The 2000 Summer Paralympic Games or the XI Summer Paralympics were held in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, between 18 and 29 October. The Sydney Paralympics was last time that the Summer Paralympics which were organized by two different ...

and the 2002 Women's Wheelchair Basketball World Championship. She was also part of the Ottawa Shooters team that won the 1995 Canadian Wheelchair Basketball League National Championship and took gold at the women's wheelchair basketball competition at the 1999 Parapan American Games.

Personal background

Peters was born in either 1970 or 1971 and comes from

Grimsby, Ontario Grimsby is a town on Lake Ontario in the Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada. Grimsby is at the eastern end of the Hamilton Census Metropolitan Area. It is named after the English fishing town of Grimsby in north-east Lincolnshire. The majority of r ...

, close to

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

. At age 17, she lost the use of both her legs in an automobile accident. Peters opted to relocate to Ottawa to study at the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (french: Université d'Ottawa), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ottaw ...

Career

She had played in sports prior to her paralysis and was disinterested in learning about disabled sports because she was angry and had other tasks to do. Peters changed her mind when she began gaining weight during her first year of university and thought of taking up

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 ...

to learn how it was played. At first, she did not want to play the sport competitively until she started to play it more and earned a nomination to be drafted to the

Canada women's national wheelchair basketball team The Canada women's national wheelchair basketball team is one of Canada's most successful national sporting teams. It is the only national women's wheelchair basketball team to have won three consecutive gold medals at the Paralympic Games in 199 ...

. At the 1995 Canadian Wheelchair Basketball League National Championship held in Montpetit Hall, Ottawa, Peters was part of the Ottawa Shooters team that came from behind to claim the gold medal with a 74–68 win over Kitsilano Crunch with her contributing points in the championship match. She was selected to be an alternate for the Canada women's national wheelchair basketball squad at the

1996 Summer Paralympics The 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, were held from August 16 to 25. It was the first Paralympics to get mass media sponsorship, and had a budget of USD $81 million. It was the first Paralympic Games where Internatio ...

in Atlanta, United States, and joined the national side two years later. Peters was part of the team that defeated the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

46–34 at the championship match of the women's wheelchair basketball competition held as part of the 1999 Parapan American Games in Mexico City to earn qualification to the women's wheelchair basketball tournament staged at the

in Sydney, Australia. In Sydney, the Canadian team she played with won every group match as well as the semi-final to earn gold medal honors in the final. She continued playing for the Canada women's national squad for the 2001–2002 season, and she was part of the gold medal-winning side at the 2002 Women's Wheelchair Basketball World Championship that took place in Kitakyushu, Japan. Peters competed for the local basketball club Ottawa Jazz that forms part of the Ottawa Carleton Wheelchair Sports Association, and she volunteered with the Royal Tip-Off program aiding elementary and secondary school students get more aware and accepting of wheelchair users. She was due to play in the women's wheelchair basketball competition at the

2004 Summer Paralympics ) , nations = 136 , athletes = 3,806 , events = 519 in 19 sports , opening = 17 September , closing = 28 September , opened_by = President Costis Stephanopoulos , cauldron = Georgios Toptsis , stadium = Olympi ...

in Athens, Greece until the Canadian Wheelchair Basketball Association opted not to include her on the final squad list. Peters' appeal against the decision was rejected. Peters has been president of the Accessibility Simplified disability access company for more than two decades. She is also executive officer of the non-profit Global Alliance on Accessible Technologies and Environments

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) or non-governmental organisation (see American and British English spelling differences#-ise, -ize (-isation, -ization), spelling differences) is an organization that generally is formed independent from g ...

that promotes accessibility of built and virtual environments. Peters was project manager of several complex Universal Design and auditing projects and was a team member on several other projects. She developed comprehensive code comparison matrices and has partaken in developing accessibility guidelines, presentations, training and standards. Peters helped to research and develop technical databases to apply technical requirements for building codes in Canada and abroad.

Media appearances

She was featured in the final episode of the six-part ''They've Got Game'' documentary television series broadcast on WTSN in January 2003. Peters broadcast the German documentary ''

My Way to Olympia ''My Way to Olympia'' is a 2013 feature documentary produced and directed by Niko von Glasow, which follows disabled athletes preparing to compete at the London 2012 Paralympics. The film focuses on Matt Stutzman, an armless American archer; Nor ...

'' as part of NWT Disability Awareness Week in

Yellowknife Yellowknife (; Dogrib: ) is the capital, largest community, and only city in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake, about south of the Arctic Circle, on the west side of Yellowknife Bay near the ...

on June 10, 2015.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peters, Marnie Living people People with paraplegia Canadian women's wheelchair basketball players Wheelchair basketball players at the 2000 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2000 Summer Paralympics Paralympic wheelchair basketball players of Canada Paralympic medalists in wheelchair basketball Paralympic gold medalists for Canada 20th-century Canadian women 21st-century Canadian women People from Grimsby, Ontario Year of birth missing (living people)