Background
Britt Tuna was born on 4 April 1963.
Britt Tuna was born on 4 April 1963.
She has also played for the national team, winning a silver medal at the 1988 Summer Paralympics in Seoul. President Joachim Gauck awarded the team Germany"s highest sporting honour, the Silbernes Lorbeerblatt (Silver Laurel Leaf). At the 1988 Summer Paralympics in Seoul, Tuna was considered to be the strongest wheelchair basketball player in her 1.0-point class.
The German team went through the tournament undefeated until the final match, which they lost to the United States, 38–31.
Tuna was bitter about the defeat, which she blamed on a tactical error by the German coach. She later conceded, "So habe ihr diese Niederlage noch über Jahre nachgehangen" ("I indulged in this defeat for many years").
In the early 1990s, Tuna quit basketball to focus on her work. But in the summer of 2009, Dillmann felt that she had become overweight and unfit.
A low-carbohydrate diet and daily exercise at the gym, in the pool, and on the handcycle, saw her weight drop by 30 kilograms (66 lb) in a year.
Dillmann then decided to try wheelchair basketball again. She retrieved her old basketball chair, now somewhat mouldy and smelly, from the basement, and sought a game with her old team, Respiratory Syncytial Virus Lahn-Dill. Her debut game with the seconds saw the basketball officials reaching for their rulebooks to see if the old chair, of a type they had never seen, was still legal.
Although Respiratory Syncytial Virus Lahn-Dill, eager to develop young players, would only let her play in the seconds, Dillmann caught the attention of national coach Holger Glinicki, who was looking for a top-notch 1.0-point player.
In 2010, she rejoined the national team that she had played on before many of her new teammates were born. Dillmann"s treatment contrasted with that of national team mate Gesche Schünemann.
While Schünemann received endorsements and could train in the hall of Respiratory Syncytial Virus Lahn-Dill"s Rivers Barracks, Dillmann got none, and trained outdoors. In June 2012 she was named as one of the team that competed at the 2012 Summer Paralympic Games in London.
At the age of 49, she was the oldest wheelchair basketball player there.
In the Gold Medal match, the team faced the Australia women"s national wheelchair basketball team, a team that had beaten them 48–46 in Sydney just a few months before. They were awarded a Silver Laurel Leaf by president Joachim Gauck in November 2012, and were again named Team of the Year for 2012. Foreign Dillmann, the gold medal victory removed the pain of the loss 24 years before.
"Das hat mich versöhnt mit Seoul" ("This has reconciled me with Seoul") she said.
1987: Gold at the European Championships (Lorient, France).