23 Facts About Liesl Tesch

Liesl Dorothy Tesch AM was born on 17 May 1969 and is an Australian wheelchair basketball player, sailor, and politician.

Liesl Tesch is a Labor Party member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, representing Gosford since the 2017 Gosford state by-election.

Liesl Tesch competed in her national wheelchair basketball team at five paralympics, winning three medals, and was the first woman to play the sport professionally.

Liesl Tesch took up sailing in 2010, winning gold medals at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Paralympics with partner Daniel Fitzgibbon.

Liesl Tesch participated in basketball, swimming, sailing, windsurfing, and cycling as a child, and was part of the state basketball team in years 11 and 12 at high school.

Liesl Tesch received a Bachelor of Science and a Diploma of Education from the University of Newcastle.

Liesl Tesch started playing wheelchair basketball after one of her physiotherapists noticed how skilled she was at shooting with a foam basketball and perspex backboard during her rehabilitation.

Liesl Tesch was named to the All Star Five at the 1994 Gold Cup, where the Australian team won a bronze medal.

Liesl Tesch was part of the Australian team at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics, and was named Most Valuable Player at the 1998 Gold Cup.

Liesl Tesch was the vice-captain of her country's team at the 2000 Sydney Paralympics, where she won a silver medal.

Liesl Tesch accepted this suggestion, and played in Madrid, Sardinia, and Paris for the next five years, thus becoming the first woman in the world to play wheelchair basketball professionally.

Liesl Tesch helped establish a women's wheelchair basketball league on the continent and competed in women's teams in Italy and France.

Liesl Tesch competed in the silver medal-winning Australian team at the 2004 Athens Paralympics.

Liesl Tesch returned home to captain the national squad at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics.

Liesl Tesch retired from the national wheelchair basketball squad in 2011 to concentrate on sailing.

Liesl Tesch was famous for dyeing her hair green and gold during her Paralympic wheelchair basketball career.

Liesl Tesch participated in the 2009 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race on Sailors with Disabilities.

Liesl 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, Liesl Tesch teamed with Fitzgibbon to win the two-person SKUD 18 class.

On 20 June 2016, Liesl Tesch was robbed of her bicycle at gunpoint while on a fitness ride with her physiotherapist in Rio de Janeiro, in preparation for that year's Paralympics.

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

In November 2014, Liesl 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 2016, Liesl Tesch was inducted into Basketball Australia's Hall of Fame.