Liesl Tesch

Liesl Tesch was one of the most decorated and respected members of the Australian women’s wheelchair basketball team, the Gliders, when she retired to begin a new career in Para-sailing in 2011.

Impressed with her performance in the 2008 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, three-time Paralympian Daniel Fitzgibbon contacted her about a potential move to Para-sailing and they began training together in early 2011.

The following year, they put the world on notice in the two-person keelboat (SKUD18), winning Australia’s first ever gold medal in that event at the Paralympic Games, and securing Paralympics Australia’s Team of the Year award with the Australian wheelchair rugby team, the Steelers.

Two world titles followed, and Liesl and Daniel steeled themselves for a dogfight to defend their Paralympic crown at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. They placed first in eight of their 11 races and second in three, to become the first team in history to win back-to-back Paralympic gold medals in the two-person keelboat (SKUD18).

Also in 2016, Liesl was the inaugural winner of the Uncle Kevin Coombs Medal for the Spirit of the Games, before retiring from Paralympic sport to pursue a career in politics. In 2017, she became the first wheelchair user to be elected to the NSW Parliament.

As well as her two Paralympic gold medals in Para-sailing, Liesl won two silver medals and one bronze in wheelchair basketball between 1992 and 2008.