Shelley Chaplin is one of the stars of the Australian team and was integral to the Gliders’ efforts to win a silver medal at London 2012. Having played extensively both in America and Australia, Shelley has an impressive resume in the sport.

In 2005, Shelley moved from her hometown of Bendigo to the USA to study and play basketball for the University of Illinois. The same year, she made her debut for the national team, at the Roosevelt Cup in the US. In 2010, Shelley was back in Illinois, completing a Bachelor’s degree of Health Sciences in Recreation, Sports and Tourism.

Sarah Stewart’s wealth of experience and skill has made her a valued member of the Australian women’s wheelchair basketball team.

With three Paralympic campaigns under her belt, Sarah has continued to be a cornerstone of the Gliders. Most recently, she helped the team win gold in the 2009, 2010, 2012 and 2013 Osaka Cups and was named tournament MVP in the 2012 win. She was also a part of the team that won silver at the London Paralympics.

Melanie Hall is a dedicated athlete with immense strength of character. It was there for everyone to see when the Australian team won a bronze medal in Beijing. Melanie was very happy with her first Games experience, believing it was a time when years of commitment and belief paid off.

Melanie became a paraplegic when she was 19 after a car accident occurred while she was at the wheel. She fell asleep and over corrected in her attempts to navigate the car along the road. Less than a year later, Melanie started to play wheelchair basketball and has never looked back.

Melanie displayed her sporting talent at an early age, winning gold in the under 20 New Zealand National Basketball tournament for Australia. Since then, she has continued to compete nationally and internationally. Named the best female athlete in a team sport in 2007 by Wheelchair Sports Victoria, Melanie is a vital member of both the Gliders and her local team, the Dandenong Rangers.

Katie Hill is a very determined individual. Having achieved her goal of representing Australia at the Paralympic Games in Beijing and winning a bronze medal, Katie went one better in London where she helped the Gliders win silver.

Coming from a very sporty family, Kathleen O’Kelly-Kennedy played standing basketball for a while before her mentors, Paralympians Don Elgin and Tim Matthews, convinced her to try Paralympic sport. Her proudest moment came when she first represented Australia at the Tri-Nation Tournament in America in 2003.

As one of the youngest members of the team at the Beijing 2008 Games, in London 2012 Cobi Crispin had matured to one of the best players for the Gliders. Now a lynchpin in the team’s setup, Cobi has enjoyed both team and individual success throughout her career.

She took up wheelchair basketball in 2003, after already having an interest in hockey, swimming and touch football. In just three short years she was named the most valuable player in the Northern Challenge in 2006.

A surviving member from the bronze medal winning Australian team from Beijing 2008, Clare Nott’s experience and cool head were important qualities to have on court when the Gliders won silver four years later in London.

She first represented Australia at Spitfire in Canada in 2005. The following year, she was part of the World Championship Gold Cup team in Amsterdam. By 2008, she was on the Australian Gliders team and at her first Paralympic Games.

A towering presence in Australian wheelchair basketball, Brad captained the Australian Rollers to their gold medal in Beijing and silver medal in London. He is one of the few Paralympic athletes to make a living out of his sport and plays wheelchair basketball professionally in Italy, where he lives with his life for most of the year.

Brad was a sports-mad teenager who excelled in swimming, tennis, hurdles and his favourite code, AFL. As a teenager, he worked as a deckhand aboard a high-speed ferry between Rottnest Island and Fremantle, before losing his leg when he was 18.

Two years after he lost a limb in a machine accident in 1993, Justin Eveson used sport as the vehicle to overcome adversity. In 1995, he began competing in wheelchair basketball but instead decided to focus on a swimming career.

At Sydney 2000, Justin made his first Paralympic team in swimming. In front of his home crowd he brought home silver and bronze medals as part of the 4x100m medley and 4x100m freestyle relay teams.