Liesl Tesch

Liesl Dorothy Tesch AM (born 17 May 1969) is an Australian wheelchair basketball player, sailor, and politician. She is a Labor Party member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, representing Gosford since the 2017 Gosford state by-election.

Liesl Tesch
AM MP
Tesch celebrates at the 2012 London Paralympics with her gold medal
Member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for Gosford
Assumed office
8 April 2017
Preceded byKathy Smith
Personal details
Born
Liesl Dorothy Tesch

(1969-05-17) 17 May 1969
Brisbane, Queensland
NationalityAustralian
Political partyLabor
OccupationPolitician, Paralympian
Sports career
Medal record
Wheelchair basketball
Paralympic Games
Silver medal – second place 2000 Sydney Women's wheelchair basketball
Silver medal – second place 2004 Athens Women's wheelchair basketball
Bronze medal – third place 2008 Beijing Women's wheelchair basketball
Sailing
Paralympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2012 London Mixed Two Person Sailing SKUD18
Gold medal – first place 2016 Rio Mixed Two Person Sailing SKUD18
IFDS World Championships
Bronze medal – third place 2014 Weymouth Mixed Two Person Sailing SKUD18
Gold medal – first place 2014 Halifax Mixed Two Person Sailing SKUD18
Gold medal – first place 2015 Melbourne Mixed Two Person Sailing SKUD18
Bronze medal – third place 2016 Medemblik Mixed Two Person Sailing SKUD18

Tesch became an incomplete paraplegic after a mountain bike accident at the age of 19. She competed in her national wheelchair basketball team at five paralympics, winning three medals, and was the first woman to play the sport professionally. She took up sailing in 2010, winning gold medals at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Paralympics with partner Daniel Fitzgibbon.

Early life

Tesch was born in Brisbane on 17 May 1969.[1] In a 2012 interview, she described her parents as "alternative" and said of her father that he would have rather philosophised than worked "because he didn't like working for a capitalist society. ... We lived off the land as much as we could, eating roadkill."[2] She grew up in Brisbane, New Zealand, and the Lake Macquarie suburb of Coal Point, and attended Toronto High School.[2][3][4] She participated in basketball, swimming, sailing, windsurfing, and cycling as a child,[5] and was part of the state basketball team in years 11 and 12 at high school.[6] At the age of 19, she broke her back after a mountain-bike accident, becoming an incomplete paraplegic.[4] She received a Bachelor of Science and a Diploma of Education from the University of Newcastle.[5]

Competitive career

Wheelchair Basketball
Women competing in wheelchair basketball
Tesch shoots from inside the key in the game against USA at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics

I have no doubt that my life has changed – it's hard to say for the better because of this catastrophe thing – but I definitely take lots of opportunities now because they're there. I think if I would have had this accident in other countries in the world there's a good chance I would have been dead, even, so every day I pack stuff in because I can. I have to have my head on and my mind open.

Liesl Tesch[5]

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.[7] Shortly after entering the New South Wales state team, she was invited to try out for and made the Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team in 1990, making her national debut at that year's World Championships[7] and her Paralympic debut at the 1992 Barcelona Games.[8] She was named to the All Star Five at the 1994 Gold Cup, where the Australian team won a bronze medal.[9] She was part of the Australian team at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics,[8] and was named Most Valuable Player at the 1998 Gold Cup.[9] She was the vice-captain of her country's team at the 2000 Sydney Paralympics, where she won a silver medal.[6][8] During celebrations after the games, some players from Europe invited her to play in professional men's teams there. She 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.[5] She helped establish a women's wheelchair basketball league on the continent and competed in women's teams in Italy and France.[5] She also competed in the silver medal-winning Australian team at the 2004 Athens Paralympics.[8] She returned home to captain the national squad at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics.[5][8] In 2010, Tesch competed with her team in the Osaka Cup, a competition for the top five women's international wheelchair basketball teams in the world; her team defeated the number one ranked American team 55–37.[10] She was a 4-point player.[11] She retired from the national wheelchair basketball squad in 2011 to concentrate on sailing.[2]

She admires Dawn Fraser, describing her as "a fellow bad girl not afraid to speak her mind". At the Beijing Paralympics, she smuggled a turtle that she had bought at a market into the Paralympic village, and named it "Tibet" after being ordered to remove it.[2] She was famous for dyeing her hair green and gold during her Paralympic wheelchair basketball career.[2]

Sailing
Tesch and Fitzgibbon at the 2012 London Paralympics

In 2009 Tesch participated in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race on Sailors with Disabilities.[2] After seeing an SBS documentary about the journey, Beijing silver medallist Daniel Fitzgibbon contacted her in late 2010 and they formed a sailing partnership.[2] Sailing the two-person SKUD 18 with Fitzgibbon, the team had immediate success, winning gold at the ISAF Gold Cup in January 2011[12] and a bronze medal at the IFDS World Championships in July of that year.[13] They won a gold medal with a race to spare at the London 2012 Paralympic sailing competition held at Weymouth and Portland.[8][14] 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".[4]

Tesch conducting wheelchair basketball clinics in Vientiane, Laos (2010)

At the 2014 IFDS World Championships in Halifax, Canada, Tesch teamed with Fitzgibbon to win the two-person SKUD 18 class.[15] Tesch and Fitzgibbon won the 2015 IFDS World Championships in Melbourne.[16] Tesch and Fitzgibbon won the bronze medal in the SKUD 18 class at the 2016 World Championships held in Medemblik, Netherlands.[17]

On 20 June 2016, 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. She was uninjured but shaken after the attack.[18] Tesch and Fitzgibbon won back to back Paralympic gold medals by winning the SKUD18 at the 2016 Rio Paralympics. They won eight out of 11 races and came second in the other three.[19]

Political career

In February 2017, Tesch was selected by the Labor Party to contest the Gosford state by-election. The New South Wales Legislative Assembly electorate of Gosford had been held by the Labor Party's Kathy Smith, who had resigned due to ill health.[20] Tesch won the election, held on 8 April 2017.[21][22]

Personal life

Before entering politics, Tesch worked as a high school teacher.[2] In 2010, she co-founded Sports Matters, a charity that promotes sport for people with disabilities in developing countries.[2][23] She lives with her partner, Mark, a boatbuilder and frequent competitor in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race; the couple met while preparing for the competition in 2009.[2]

Recognition
Tesch and Fitzgibbon receiving the Team of the Year award at the 2012 Australian Paralympian of the Year ceremony

In 2000, Tesch received an Australian Sports Medal.[24] She and Fitzgibbon were jointly named as Sailors of the Year with a Disability in 2011.[25] She was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2014 Australia Day Honours "for significant service to sport as a gold medallist at the London 2012 Paralympic Games, and through the promotion and facilitation of sport for people with disabilities."[26] In November 2014, Tesch shared the Yachting Australia Sailor of the Year with a Disability award with Daniel Fitzgibbon, Colin Harrison, Jonathan Harris, Russell Boaden and Matthew Bugg. The Australian team of six sailors beat Great Britain by one point at the IFDS World Championship.[27] Tesch and Fitzgibbon won the 2014 NSW Sports Award for Team of the Year with a Disability.[28] In November 2014, Tesch was awarded The Primary Club of Australia's Sir Roden Cutler Award acknowledging an outstanding sporting achievement by an athlete with a disability.[29][30] In November 2015, Tesch and Fitzgibbon were awarded Yachting Australia's 2015 Sailor of the Year with a Disability.[31] In 2016, Tesch was inducted into Basketball Australia's Hall of Fame.[32] In 2016, she was awarded the President's Award at the Australian Sailing Awards.[33] At the 2016 Australian Paralympic Committee awards, she was awarded the Uncle Kevin Coombs Medal for the Spirit of The Games.[34] In November 2017, Tesch and Daniel Fitzgibbon were inaugural inductees to the Australian Sailing Hall of Fame.[35] In 2022, she was inducted into the New South Wales Hall of Champions.[36]

References
  1. "Australians at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics: wheelchair basketballers". Australian Sports Commission. Archived from the original on 19 January 2000. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  2. Lewis, Daniel (26 August 2012). "At home with Liesl Tesch". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  3. "Residents' stories: Liesl Tesch". MyGosfordTV. 7 March 2012. Archived from the original on 28 September 2013. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  4. Cronshaw, Damon. "A golden tribute from a daughter to her mum". The Newcastle Herald. Archived from the original on 9 August 2016. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  5. Lazarevic, Jade (13 March 2010). "A life less ordinary". The Newcastle Herald. p. 12. Retrieved 22 October 2012.
  6. "Bright basketballer to hand out lesson". The Newcastle Herald. 16 October 2000. p. 29. Retrieved 22 October 2012.
  7. "Liesl Tesch". WorkCover Authority of New South Wales. 30 August 2009. Archived from the original on 28 March 2011. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
  8. "Liesl Tesch". Paralympic.org. International Paralympic Committee. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  9. "Liesl Tesch". Basketball Australia. Retrieved 22 October 2012.
  10. Wakefield, Shari (30 April 2010). "Meet the Sydney Uni Wheelchair Flames". Sydney University. Retrieved 9 September 2011.
  11. "2010 WC Team". Basketball Australia. Retrieved 18 November 2011.
  12. Heydon, Craig (29 January 2011). "Gold for Australian Paralympic crew at Miami OCR". Yachting Australia. Archived from the original on 17 June 2012. Retrieved 22 October 2012.
  13. "Britain's Rickham and Birrell to Challenge in Melbourne". International Paralympic Committee. 4 November 2011. Archived from the original on 15 April 2013. Retrieved 22 October 2012.
  14. "Australia's Dan Fitzgibbon and Liesl Tesch win SKUD18 gold with a race to spare". International Sailing Federation. 5 September 2012. Archived from the original on 7 November 2012. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  15. "Results". IFDS Worlds 2014 website. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
  16. Tate, Andrew (2 December 2015). "Para World Sailing Championships: Australian pair undefeated and on track for Rio". Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 2 December 2015.
  17. "2016 Para World Sailing Championship". World Sailing website. 28 May 2016. Retrieved 31 May 2016.
  18. Tonkin, Emma (21 June 2016). "Paralympian Liesl Tesch robbed at gunpoint in Rio de Janeiro". ABC News. Retrieved 21 June 2016.
  19. "2-Person Keelboat (SKUD18) – Standings". Rio Paralympics Official site. Archived from the original on 23 September 2016. Retrieved 18 September 2016.
  20. Gerathy, Sarah (24 February 2017). "Criticism after Paralympic champion Liesl Tesch picked by ALP for Gosford seat". ABC News. Retrieved 5 March 2017.
  21. "Ms Liesl Dorothy Tesch, AM". Members of the Parliament of New South Wales. Retrieved 5 May 2019.
  22. "Labor candidate Liesl Tesch claims NSW seat of Gosford". Nine news. 9 April 2017. Retrieved 9 April 2017.
  23. "History". Sport Matters. Archived from the original on 16 March 2020. Retrieved 21 October 2012.
  24. "Tesch, Liesl: Australian Sports Medal". It's an Honour. Archived from the original on 12 April 2017. Retrieved 22 October 2012.
  25. "Sailor of the Year with a Disability". Australian Sailing Team. Retrieved 22 October 2012.
  26. "Australia Day honours list 2014: in full". Daily Telegraph. 26 January 2014. Retrieved 26 January 2014.
  27. "Stellar night for Australian sailing at Yachting Australia Awards 2014". Yachting Australia News. 1 November 2014. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 22 November 2014.
  28. Zillich, Cora (20 February 2015). "Fitzgibbon and Tesch claim top NSW Sports Award for Team of the Year". Sail World. Retrieved 19 March 2015.
  29. "Liesl Tesch – Recipient of the 2014 Sir Roden Cutler Award". The Primary Club of Australia. 30 August 2014. Archived from the original on 4 November 2014. Retrieved 28 October 2015.
  30. "Primary Club's 40th anniversary dinner". Trybooking. Retrieved 28 October 2015.
  31. "Belcher and Ryan lead all-star night at Yachting Australia Awards". Yachting Australia website. 9 November 2015. Archived from the original on 2 February 2016. Retrieved 10 November 2015.
  32. "MICHELE TIMMS TO BE IMMORTALISED AS A LEGEND ALONGSIDE SEVEN INDUCTEES IN AUS BASKETBALL HALL OF FAME". Basketball Australia. 28 October 2016. Retrieved 30 October 2016.
  33. Lulham, Amanda (30 October 2016). "Paralympian Liesl Tesch picks up Australian Sailing's President's Award". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 30 October 2016.
  34. "Six inducted into the Australian Paralympic Hall of Fame". Australian Paralympic Committee. 9 December 2016. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
  35. "Daniel Fitzgibbon OAM and Liesl Tesch AM". Australian Sailing Hall of Fame website. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
  36. "NSW Hall of Champions announces six new inductees". Sport NSW. 20 October 2022. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
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