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These days you’ll find Liesl Tesch busily representing her local community as a NSW Member of Parliament.
While the gregarious seven-time Paralympian’s determination to make an impact in politics is an extension of her 24-year sporting career, her ability to advocate effectively in the seat of Gosford is a skill she traces back to her work tirelessly promoting the Sydney Paralympics – and what came next.
“Bringing as many people as possible with us on the Sydney 2000 journey was something I felt very strongly about,” Tesch said.
“You name it, I spoke to every community organisation I possibly could to get them attached and be part of it. We educated people and put the word ‘Paralympics’ in their vocabulary.
“I’ve got encyclopedias’ worth of training diaries and all those speaking engagements are in there. Being part of the team of 49 athletes that provided that level of education across the board was amazing. Taking our communities on that journey, to help make those stadiums full, was the experience of a lifetime. I never predicted it would lead to the career I have now, but I do believe it played a significant part.”
By the Sydney Paralympics, Tesch had competed at two Games as part of the Gliders women’s wheelchair basketball team. The team won the silver medal in Sydney, silver in 2004 and bronze in 2008. Tesch then switched to Para-sailing, where she and her sailing partner Dan Fitzgibbon won back-to-back gold medals in 2012 and 2016 in the SKUD18 class.
Tesch retired after Rio and was elected to parliament in the Gosford by-election in 2017.
Tesch later ran the Paralympic Mentoring Program, working with athletes around Australia to help them achieve their goals in and around sport.
“My life in politics is like my life in the Paralympic Movement,” she said.
“I’ve taken the determination I had as an athlete into the political world. I was pretty bloody determined then to make an impact and it’s the same now.
“The experiences I had leading into Sydney gave me a voice in the community as someone who could achieve good outcomes for people with a disability. Not many people get an opportunity like that, to use their voice, to become a spokesperson for the Games. It really was a privilege.”
I have taken that to another level in my political career and am now the Deputy Chair of Commonwealth Parliamentarians with Disabilities – a global effort to get more people with disabilities a seat at the table in political decision-making around the globe.
Playing at the Sydney Paralympics was also a privilege. However, Tesch admitted, coming away with silver – while being the Gliders’ first Paralympic medal – was “horribly anti-climactic”.
“Memories of that final game against Canada, for me, is like trying to claw my way up a cliff,” she said. “I remember the game sliding away from us and we weren’t able to do what we needed to. We just didn’t have enough international experience. As Aussies we were so isolated and, at that stage, international opportunities weren’t there.”
It was a different story after the Games, leading to the next way in which Sydney 2000 helped prepare Tesch for her political career.
“After we won our silver, we had a big party and one of the Italian guys said, ‘Do you want to come and play in Europe, Liesl?’ I said, ‘But I’m a girl’. He said, ‘Well, you’re good enough’.
“A week later they rang me and said to come to Italy. I said no, but then I moved to Spain a year later to play professional men’s wheelchair basketball. Never in a squillion years did I think that playing wheelchair basketball at the Sydney Paralympic Games would open doors like that.”
Tesch played in Spain for a year, Sardinia for three years and in France for a year.
“Having played sport in those men’s leagues in Europe, then going into that male orientated parliament, it’s just like playing in the Italian men’s team,” Tesch said.
“It’s about tactics, strategies, working out where you can get your wins, how you can achieve the goals you want to achieve and balancing your short-term and long-term goals. There’s so much from the sport I played that I apply to my job now.
“It’s also about just being part of a team. A political party is like any team – it works best when you’re working together.”
By David Sygall, Paralympics Australia.
Published 18 October, 2025.
