Michelle Rzepecki

Michelle Rzepecki

2012 Australian Paralympic Team portrait of Rzepecki
Personal information
Nationality Australia
Born (1986-11-06) 6 November 1986
Wollstonecraft, New South Wales
Height 173 cm (68 in) (2012)
Sport
Country Australia
Sport Goalball

Michelle Rzepecki (born 6 November 1986) is an Australian goalball player classified as a B3 competitor. She made her debut for the Australia women's national goalball team at the 2011 African-Oceania regional Paralympic qualifying competition. She was selected to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in goalball.

Personal life

Rzepecki was born on 6 November 1986 in Wollstonecraft, New South Wales,[1] and is 173 centimetres (68 in) tall.[2] She has the visual disability rod monochromatism, which she acquired at birth.[1][3] She can play the saxophone and piano.[1] Rzepecki is a third-generation Australian, as her grandfather moved to Australia from Germany.[1] While attending Castle Hill High School,[4] she returned to the country of her grandfather's birth to do study abroad that was funded by a scholarship from the Society for Australian-German Student Exchange Inc.[4] She also lived in Bolivia for a while, working at a school for children with visual impairments. While there, she introduced the children to goalball.[1] Part of her work in the country was funded by a mini-grant.[5] As of 2012, she works as a Sydney Tower Skywalk guide.[1]

Goalball

Rzepecki is a goalball player, and for visual disability sports, is classified as a B3 competitor.[1] She is a centre and winger.[2][6] She has a goalball scholarship with the New South Wales Institute of Sport.[7] Rzepecki started playing the sport in 2002.[1] She competed at the 2004 Australian National Goalball Championships, playing for the New South Wales goalball team which beat the Queensland goalball team in the finals.[1] In 2011, Rzepecki made her national team debut during the African-Oceania regional Paralympic qualifying competition.[1][2][8][9][10] She played in the game against the New Zealand women's national goalball team that Australia won.[9][10][11] As a member of the 2011 team, she finished sixth at the IBSA Goalball World Cup.[8][11][12][13]

The Australian Paralympic Committee had chosen to work on her development as a goalball player with the idea that she might be able to qualify for, and win a medal at, the 2016 Summer Paralympics.[13] She was a named a member of the Aussie Belles that was going to the 2012 Summer Paralympics,[1][3][7][12][14] in what would be her debut Games.[7] That the team qualifyied for the Games came as a surprise, as the Australian Paralympic Committee had been working on player development with an idea of the team qualifying for the 2016 Summer Paralympics.[12] An Australian team had not participated since the 2000 Summer Paralympics, when they earned an automatic selection as hosts, and the team finished last in the competition.[12][15] Going into the Paralympics, her team was ranked eighth in the world.[7] In the 2012 Summer Paralympics tournament, the Belles played games against Japan, Canada, the United States and Sweden. They lost every game, and did not advance to the finals.[16]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 "Michelle Rzepecki". Australia: Australian Paralympic Committee. 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012.
  2. 1 2 3 "NSW Ladies". NSW Goalball Association. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
  3. 1 2 "AAP News: OLY:Australian goalballers London bound". Australia: AAP News. 8 May 2012. WAAP97280181. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
  4. 1 2 "Past Scholarship Winners Archive". The Society for Australian-German Student Exchange. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
  5. ↑ "Mini-grant program with". Sustainable Bolivia. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
  6. ↑ "Tough lesson for Aussie goalball". Australian Paralympic Committee. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Michelle Rzepecki". NSWIS. 11 July 2012. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
  8. 1 2 "Goalball teams named for Paralympic showdown". Australian Paralympic Committee. 9 November 2011. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
  9. 1 2 "AAP News: SPO:Aus goalballers play for London 2012 spots". Australia: AAP News. 16 November 2011. WAAP92597477. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
  10. 1 2 "Aus goalballers play for London 2012 spots". Australia: Nine MSN. Retrieved 9 July 2012.
  11. 1 2 Deborah FitzGerald (24 November 2011). "London here we come". Inner West Courier. Retrieved 9 July 2012.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Fife, Janet (14 June 2012). "Pride of Australia nominee Georgina Kenaghan is giving her team that ring of confidence". Sydney, Australia: Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 9 July 2012.
  13. 1 2 Fife-Yeomans, Janet (14 June 2012). "Giving team that ring of confidence - - PRIDE OF AUSTRALIA". Daily Telegraph (Sydney, Australia). p. 12. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
  14. ↑ Tilley, Andrew (22 May 2012). "News". The University of Sydney. Retrieved 15 July 2012.
  15. ↑ "Australian London 2012 athletes receive extra funding | London 2012 Paralympic news". insideworldparasport.biz. 29 June 2012. Retrieved 9 July 2012.
  16. ↑ "Women's Goalball". Official site of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Retrieved 16 September 2012.

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Friday, April 10, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.