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.

Coming from a sporty family, Melanie sees sport as a way of life. Her father, an inspirational figure in her life, was a cyclist and played rugby league and AFL while her mother played netball, softball and competed in track events.

In her younger years, Melanie herself competed in track and field events, swimming, netball, softball and was even a competitive ballroom dancer, one of her more glamorous sports. She is interested in photography and hopes to further pursue this passion in future years.

Melanie is the only current Paralympian from the Northern Territory. While she loves living in Darwin, it does mean she has to travel far to train and compete against the best wheelchair basketballers in the country. She bases herself in Wollongong for half of the year and works full-time in the finance industry when she is in the Northern Territory and at the Road and Traffic Authority while in New South Wales.

While a broken leg sustained in 2009 pegged her back in her London preparations by almost a year, she is hoping to turn what she’s learnt and the experience gained in Beijing into a gold medal in London.