Liesl Tesch was one of the most decorated and respected members of the Australian women’s wheelchair basketball team, the Gliders, when she retired in 2011 to begin a new career in Para-sailing.
Read MoreLiesl Tesch was one of the most decorated and respected members of the Australian women’s wheelchair basketball team, the Gliders, when she retired in 2011 to begin a new career in Para-sailing.
A little over a year later, she was crowned Paralympic champion for the first time, after partnering with Daniel Fitzgibbon in the two-person keelboat SKUD18 to win Australia’s first Paralympic gold medal in that event and Paralympics Australia’s Team of the Year award alongside Daniel and the Australian wheelchair rugby team, the Steelers.
Two world titles followed, and in 2016, Liesl and Daniel cemented their place among the greatest ever Para-sailors, finishing first in eight of their 11 races and second in the remaining three, to become the first team in history to win back-to-back Paralympic gold medals in the two-person keelboat SKUD18.
For this, Liesl and Daniel were again honoured with Paralympics Australia’s Team of the Year award – along with the rest of the Australian Para-sailing team – and Liesl was named the inaugural winner of the Uncle Kevin Coombs Medal for the Spirit of the Games.
Soon after, she retired from Paralympic sport to pursue a career in politics, and in 2017, became the first wheelchair user to be elected to the NSW Parliament.
As well as her two Paralympic gold medals in Para-sailing, Liesl also won two silver medals and a bronze in wheelchair basketball between 1992 and 2008.
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