Liesl Tesch

Tesch was born in Brisbane on 17 May 1969. In a 2012 interview, she described her parents as "alternative" and said of her father that he would have rather philosophised than worked "because he didn't like working for a capitalist society. ... We lived off the land as much as we could, eating roadkill." She grew up in Brisbane, New Zealand, and the Lake Macquarie suburb of Coal Point, and attended Toronto High School. She participated in basketball, swimming, sailing, windsurfing, and cycling as a child, and was part of the state basketball team in years 11 and 12 at high school. At the age of 19, she broke her back after a mountain-bike accident, becoming an incomplete paraplegic. She received a Bachelor of Science and a Diploma of Education from the University of Newcastle. ==Competitive career==

Wheelchair basketball Tesch started playing wheelchair basketball after one of her physiotherapists noticed how skilled she was at shooting with a foam basketball and perspex backboard during her rehabilitation. Shortly after entering the New South Wales state team, she was invited to try out for and made the Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team in 1990, making her national debut at that year's World Championships She was named to the All Star Five at the 1994 Gold Cup, where the Australian team won a bronze medal. She was part of the Australian team at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics, She was a 4-point player. She retired from the national wheelchair basketball squad in 2011 to concentrate on sailing. and a bronze medal at the IFDS World Championships in July of that year. They won a gold medal with a race to spare at the London 2012 Paralympic sailing competition held at Weymouth and Portland. Tesch's mother had died of cancer after her first day of racing at the games; shortly after winning the gold medal, she said it was "a beautiful way to celebrate my mum's life to win gold on a beautiful sunny day at the Paralympic Games". Tesch and Fitzgibbon won the 2015 IFDS World Championships in Melbourne. Tesch and Fitzgibbon won the bronze medal in the SKUD 18 class at the 2016 World Championships held in Medemblik, Netherlands. On 20 June 2016, Tesch was robbed of her bicycle at gunpoint while on a fitness ride with her physiotherapist in Rio de Janeiro, in preparation for that year's Paralympics. She was uninjured but shaken after the attack. Tesch and Fitzgibbon won back to back Paralympic gold medals by winning the SKUD18 at the 2016 Rio Paralympics. They won eight out of 11 races and came second in the other three. ==Political career==

In February 2017, Tesch was selected by the Labor Party to contest the Gosford state by-election. The New South Wales Legislative Assembly electorate of Gosford had been held by the Labor Party's Kathy Smith, who had resigned due to ill health. Tesch won the election, held on 8 April 2017. Following the election of the Minns government at the 2023 New South Wales state election, Tesch was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary for Disability Inclusion, Families and Communities. ==Personal life==

Before entering politics, Tesch worked as a high school teacher. She lives with her partner, Mark, a boatbuilder and frequent competitor in the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race; the couple met while preparing for the competition in 2009. ==Recognition==

In 2000, Tesch received an Australian Sports Medal. She and Fitzgibbon were jointly named as Sailors of the Year with a Disability in 2011. She was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2014 Australia Day Honours "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." In 2014, Tesch shared the Yachting Australia Sailor of the Year with a Disability award with Daniel Fitzgibbon, Colin Harrison, Jonathan Harris, Russell Boaden and Matthew Bugg. The Australian team of six sailors beat Great Britain by one point at the IFDS World Championship. Tesch and Fitzgibbon won the 2014 NSW Sports Award for Team of the Year with a Disability. In 2014, Tesch was awarded The Primary Club of Australia's Sir Roden Cutler Award acknowledging an outstanding sporting achievement by an athlete with a disability. In 2015, Tesch and Fitzgibbon were awarded Yachting Australia's 2015 Sailor of the Year with a Disability. In 2016, Tesch was inducted into Basketball Australia's Hall of Fame. In 2016, she was awarded the President's Award at the Australian Sailing Awards. At the 2016 Australian Paralympic Committee awards, she was awarded the Uncle Kevin Coombs Medal for the Spirit of The Games. In 2017, Tesch and Daniel Fitzgibbon were inaugural inductees to the Australian Sailing Hall of Fame. In 2022, she was inducted into the New South Wales Hall of Champions. In 2024, she was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame. ==References==