Shelley Cronau

Shelley Cronau (born 29 May 1985) is a 3.0 point Australian wheelchair basketball player. She was part of the Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team (Gliders) line up at the Osaka Cup in Japan in 2011, 2012 and 2013, and the 2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship in Toronto in June 2014. She was captain of the Minecraft Comets team that won the Women's National Wheelchair Basketball League (WNWBL) championship title in 2014. The Minecraft Comets were named the Queensland Sporting Wheelies Team of the Year for 2014, and Cronau won the award for Sporting Wheelie of the Year. She represented the Gliders at the 2020 Summer Paralympics.[1]

Shelley Cronau
Shelley Cronau playing for the Minecraft Comets in Sydney, 2014
Personal information
Nationality Australia
Born (1985-05-29) 29 May 1985
Sport
CountryAustralia
SportWheelchair basketball
Disability class3.0
Event(s)Women's team
ClubQueensland Comets

Biography

Shelley Cronau was born on 29 May 1985.[2] She attended Nerang Primary and Nerang State High School on Queensland's Gold Coast.[3] In 2007, she had a serious accident, falling down a flight of stairs in Surfers Paradise. Her spinal cord was crushed, her skull was fractured and she had brain injuries. She spent five months in rehabilitation. Her brain injuries healed, but she was left an incomplete paraplegic.

Shelley decided that she did not like the direction that her life had been heading in, and had been given a second chance.[2] In 2013, she would join the Be the Influence advertising campaign, warning others about the dangers of binge drinking.[4]

After watching the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing on television, Cronau decided to take up wheelchair basketball.[2] with the support of her family, and childhood best friend, Hunney Harris at her side.

She played her first game with the Women's National Wheelchair Basketball League (WNWBL) in 2010, making her debut with the Sydney University Flames.[2] That year she was named the WNWBL Roiokie of the Year.[5] The following year she joined re-formed Minecraft Comets back in her home state of Queensland.[3] She captained the Minecraft Comets team that won the WNWBL championship title in 2014. As a member of a men's team, the RSL Queensland Spinning Bullets, she also won silver in the National Wheelchair Basketball League completion. The Minecraft Comets were named the Queensland Sporting Wheelies Team of the Year for 2014, and Cronau won the award for Sporting Wheelie of the Year.[6]

In February 2011, Cronau made her national team debut as part of the Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team (known as the Gliders) at the Osaka Cup in Japan, winning a silver medal.[2][7] Later that year she played in the 2011 Asia-Oceania Zone Championships, where the Gliders qualified for the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, and was part of the Osaka Cup team again in February 2012, winning a gold medal this time, but she missed out on Paralympic selection. She then set her sights on winning selection for 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.[2] She was part of the winning Gliders team again at the Osaka Cup in 2013,[8] and at the much less successful 2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship in Toronto in 2014.[9] She was part of the Gliders team at the 2015 Asia Oceania Qualifying Tournament in Chiba, Japan, in October 2015,[10] but the Gliders did not qualify for Rio after finishing second to China.[11] She played with the Gliders at the Osaka Cup in Japan again in February 2017.[12] In May 2017, while playing overseas in Spain, she was selected in the Gliders team to play in the World Super Cup in Germany and the Netherlands, and the Continental Clash with Germany, Japan and Great Britain.

She represented Australia at the 2018 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship where the team came ninth.

At the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, the Gliders finished ninth after winning the 9th-10th classification match.[13]

References
  1. "Gliders' Redemption In Full Swing After Tokyo 2020 Announcement". Paralympics Australia. Retrieved 16 July 2021.
  2. "Shelley Cronau". Australian Paralympic Committee. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
  3. "Player statistics for Shelley Cronau (3.0)". Fox Sports. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
  4. "Tackling Binge Drinking – Australian Paralympic Committee joins Be the Influence". Tackling Binge Drinking Initiative. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
  5. "Best New Talent". Basketball Australia. Retrieved 20 July 2014.
  6. "Cronau Wins Top Honour at State Awards". Basketball Australia. Archived from the original on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
  7. "Australian Gliders team named for Osaka Cup". Basketball Australia. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
  8. "Aussie Gliders 2013 Osaka Cup Champions". Basketball Australia. Retrieved 14 June 2015.
  9. "2014 Women's Wheelchair Basketball World Championship Media Guide" (PDF). Wheelchair Basketball Canada. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 November 2014. Retrieved 20 June 2014.
  10. "Gliders and Rollers Announced Ahead of IWBF AOZ Qualifiers". Basketball Australia. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  11. "Heartbreak and Elation for Gliders and Rollers at AOZ qualifying tournament". Basketball Australia. Retrieved 20 October 2015.
  12. "Australian Gliders Headed to First International Tournament Under New Coach David Gould". Basketball Australia. 20 January 2017. Retrieved 28 January 2017.
  13. "Gliders end Tokyo campaign on a high". New South Wales Institute of Sport. 31 August 2021. Retrieved 18 September 2021.
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