Michelle Rzepecki has been training with the Australian squad since 2011 and having played goalball for much of the past decade, is hoping to become a permanent fixture on the Australian women’s team.

Having played for New South Wales at a number of national championships, winning the 2004 championships against a strong Queensland side has been the highlight of Michelle’s goalball career so far. She has also watched goalball change significantly in the past 10 years and is a strong supporter of growing the sport in Australia.

Michelle believes her grandfather has been the most influential person in her life and looks up to him, for his courage in migrating from Germany to Australia and establishing a successful cafe business soon after.

She has since returned to her ancestral homeland in Germany on student exchange and cites a lost in translation moment as her most embarrassing – she told a class in German she wanted to be a terrorist, when she thought she was saying she wanted to work in tourism.

Michelle loves being outdoors and enjoys hiking and camping. She is also quite musical and can play the piano and saxophone. Most recently she has returned from living in Bolivia where she introduced goalball to a school for vision impaired students and she now works as a guide on the Sydney Tower Skywalk tourist attraction.