Amber Merritt is a 4.5-point classified wheelchair basketballer who began her athletic career as a swimmer before being recruited to basketball by the legendary coach Frank Ponta.
Amber started playing at the top level club in the WNWBL and finished as the league’s leading scorer in 2012 while also claiming the 4.0 MVP every year between 2011 and 2018. In 2013 Amber led the Western Stars to its first championship, defeating the Sachs Goldcamp Bears in the gold-medal playoff by three points despite being down 11 at three-quarter time.
On the international scale, Amber made her debut for the Gliders in 2009 and competed at several competitions including the Japan Friendly Series, Four Nations in Canada and the U23 World Championships, where her team finished fourth.
In 2012, she competed at the World Challenge in Sydney, scoring the winning points in the first-place playoff against Germany and was named the women’s MVP for the competition, having averaged 17.8 points per game.
Amber was selected to play at the 2012 Paralympics, where she won a silver medal before the team won gold at the 2013 Osaka Cup.
Amber returned to the big stage in 2018 when the Gliders played at the 2018 World Championships in Hamburg, Germany.
While the Gliders missed qualification for Rio 2016, the team successfully qualified to make their return at Tokyo 2020. At the Games, the Aussie side won their final match of the tournament to finish in ninth. Amber finished her huge campaign with 27 points and eight rebounds as Australia equalled its World Championship placing of three years ago.
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