Liesl Tesch AM was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 2024 as an Athlete Member for her contribution to the sports of Basketball and Sailing (Para Athlete).

Liesl Tesch was one of Australia’s greatest Paralympians, excelling in two sports and proving an inspiration to a generation of able-bodied athletes and athletes with a disability.
Her daring to take on new challenges and her will to win in two vastly different disciples set her apart from her contemporaries.
Having become an incomplete paraplegic – unable to use her lower legs – in a mountain bike accident as a 19-year-old, Tesch initially found her sporting calling in wheelchair basketball.
She represented Australia in wheelchair basketball at five Paralympics, winning silver medals in Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004) as well as a bronze medal in Beijing (2008).
Then Tesch embarked on a new pursuit, adopting sailing as her next venture, which saw her qualify for two further Paralympics, making it seven in total.
She combined with Daniel Fitzgibbon to win back-to-back gold medals in the Two Person Sailing SKUD 18 at the London 2012 Paralympics and the Rio 2016 Paralympics.
Tesch was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2014 for “significant service to sport as a gold medallist at the London 2012 Paralympic Games, and through the promotion and facilitation of sport for people with disabilities.”
Her outstanding contribution to her chosen sports mirrored her service to the community, both as a teacher and later as a parliamentarian.

Excelling in one sport is challenging enough; achieving success in multiple sports at international level is a rare, extraordinary feat.
That’s what Liesl Tesch was able to do in wheelchair basketball and sailing as a para athlete, propelling her determination, drive and dedication to reach the limits in her chosen endeavours.
Hers is not only a remarkable sporting story, but more a life success story, as she also used her career and her commitment to the community to help better the lives of others.
Having been born in Brisbane and raised in a number of places around Australia and New Zealand, she had an unconventional upbringing with “alternative” parents which helped shape her life. It encouraged her to challenge the status quo and take on new pursuits.
The other event which shaped her sporting destiny came when she suffered a mountain bike accident when she was a 19-year-old student at Newcastle University.
Tesch became an incomplete paraplegic, leaving her unable to use her lower legs.
But a visit from a group of wheelchair basketballers during her long hospital stay piqued her interest and provided her with the platform to find a new passion.
She was confined to a hospital bed for two months and shooting a foam basketball into a mini basketball hoop proved a part of her rehabilitation – and her pathway to greatness.
“They took me to Mt Druitt and wheeled me in, and it saved me,” Tesch would later say. “It was the vision of people with a disability participating.”
She started in the New South Wales team before graduating to the national side, and by the time she was 23, Tesch was competing for Australia at the 1992 Barcelona Paralympics.
It was the first of five Paralympic appearances with the Australian wheelchair basketball team – Barcelona (1992), Atlanta (1996), Sydney (2000), Athens (2004) and Beijing (2008).
Tesch was the vice-captain in Sydney, and played a big role in the silver-medal winning performance in front of parochial, packed home crowds.
“It was our first medal and, as athletes, we built the Sydney Paralympics,” she said.
“We spent so much time going out and telling people about it. It gave people the chance to see disability in a different light.”
It was during those 2000 Paralympics celebrations that she was encouraged to move to Europe to play professionally, becoming the first Australian wheelchair player to do so.
The Australian team also won a silver medal in Athens four years later, and Tesch was appointed captain of the side which won a bronze medal in Beijing in 2008.
Her character within the team was every bit as popular as her ability to perform on-court, even dyeing her hair green and gold for team spirit and unity.
She retired from the ‘Gliders’ in 2011, but thankfully not from sport, having been fuelled by a dream to switch to sailing.
Tesch had agreed to sail the Sydney to Hobart with Sailors with Disabilities in 2009, which led to an offer from Daniel Fitzgibbon – a sailing silver medal winner from Beijing – to join him as part of a team on the water.
The pairing would prove stunningly successful.
Tesch and Fitzgibbon would go on to win back-to-back gold medals in the Mixed Two Person Sailing SKUD 18 at the 2012 and 2016 Paralympics – both in difficult circumstances.
The first gold, in London, came only days after the death of her mother in Australia.
“Not many people get up on the morning of their gold medal race and start organising a memorial service for their mother, but what a beautiful way to celebrate my mum’s life … to win gold on a beautiful sunny day,” she said in dedicating the gold medal to her mum.
As Fitzgibbon said of his boat partner: “She (Tesch) was strong, motivated and keen. She brings things to the boat that I lack, so we really do balance each other out there.”
Test’s build-up to the 2016 Rio Games was interrupted just months out from the event when she was held up at gunpoint and robbed of her bike at a pre-Olympics test event.
While she was shaken by the experience, she was unbowed by the task ahead. She and Fitzgibbon backed up their Mixed Two Person Sailing SKUD 18 in Rio.
It proved an emotional conclusion to her extraordinary career, closing out her seventh Paralympics with another cherished gold medal.
On her return, she fittingly won the inaugural Uncle Kevin Coombs Medal for the Spirit of the Games at the 2016 Australian Paralympic Awards.
In accepting the award, Tesch said: “The dignity and respect bestowed upon me makes me very proud of the work I continue to do around our Paralympic team unity, human rights and social inclusion.”
She continued the work as a teacher and later as a parliamentarian for Gosford in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly.

Honours & Achievements

• 2011: Named Sailor of the Year with a Disability by Australian Sailing joint with Daniel Fitzgibbon
• 2014: Appointed a Member of the Order of Australia
• 2014: Named Sailor of the Year with a Disability by Australian Sailing joint with Daniel Fitzgibbon, Colin Harrison, Jonathan Harris, Russell Boaden and Matthew Bugg
• 2015: Named Sailor of the Year with a Disability by Australian Sailing joint with Daniel Fitzgibbon
• 2016: Inducted into the Basketball Australia Hall of Fame
• 2016: Awarded the President’s Award by Australian Sailing
• 2016: Awarded the Uncle Kevin Coombs Medal for the Spirit of the Games by the Australian Paralympic Committee
• 2017: Inducted into the Australian Sailing Hall of Fame

Photo courtesy News Corp Australia.