After being inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2016, Liesl Tesch has been elevated to Legend Status, celebrating the remarkable impact the seven-time Paralympian continues to make on the sport. 

 

Liesl played able-bodied basketball before a mountain bike accident broke her back and introduced her to wheelchair basketball. 

She quickly rose through the ranks and was soon trying out for the Gliders at the AIS.

 

“I wheeled into the stadium and there were girls that I’d played with able-bodied on the next court and I just burst into tears. They looked so beautiful and so graceful and I was in this chunk of metal but that was the day the adventure started.”

 

She would make the team and then go on to be a mainstay, playing at the 1990 World Championships and her first Paralympics in 1992.

 

It was after winning silver at Sydney 2000 that she would truly blaze a new trail, becoming the first female player to play professionally in Europe, playing in Spain, Italy and then France, but there was no female league, she played only against the men. 

 

Eventually she helped set up women's leagues in Europe but would come home for the off-season, linking with the Roller Hawks to continue honing her skills playing with different people and training under a different coach. 

 

“I used to live in Europe in the basketball season and then I’d come home and play in our season in the winter as well. I’d teach four days a week and then play with the Wollongong Roller Hawks. I’d sleep on Tim Maloney’s floor in the garage, I’d just take opportunities as they arise.”

 

“We had lots of fun and we trained hard, and we played some fantastic basketball!”

 

Five Paralympics with the Gliders as well as two in sailing plus her pioneering days in Europe is legendary in itself but perhaps it’s what Tesch has done since retiring from international competition that has elevated her to Legend Status in the eyes of Basketball NSW.

 

She co-founded Sport Matters, an international aid and development organisation using sport to empower individuals and change communities and since being elected to NSW Parliament she has continued to campaign for people with a disability and is currently Parliamentary Secretary for Disability Inclusion, Families and Communities.

 

“Basketball has given so many of us a voice, and a chance to be who we are, a person with a disability but taking that into being in the parliament, getting onto boards and taking on people with disabilities who were basketballers once but are doing so much more and contributing to our community.” 

 

Tesch continues to play in the WNWBL for the Sydney Uni Flames and suited up for Central Coast in this year’s Waratah League. 

 

“Life in a wheelchair, when you’ve got sport is absolutely alright.”