Michelle Rzepecki

November 6, 1986

Wollstonecraft, New South Wales

She made her debut for the Australia women"s national goalball team at the 2011 African-Oceania regional Paralympic qualifying competition. She was selected to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in goalball. Rzepecki is a goalball player, and for visual disability sports, is classified as a B3 competitor. She is a centre and winger. She has a goalball scholarship with the New South Wales Institute of Sport. Rzepecki started playing the sport in 2002. She competed at the 2004 Australian National Championships, playing for the New South Wales goalball team which beat the Queensland goalball team in the finals. In 2011, Rzepecki made her national team debut during the African-Oceania regional Paralympic qualifying competition. That the team qualifyied for the Games came as a surprise, as the Australian Paralympic Committee had been working on player development with an idea of the team qualifying for the 2016 Summer Paralympics. An Australian team had not participated since the 2000 Summer Paralympics, when they earned an automatic selection as hosts, and the team finished last in the competition. Going into the Paralympics, her team was ranked eighth in the world. In the 2012 Summer Paralympics tournament, the Belles played games against Japan, Canada, the United States and Sweden. They lost every game, and did not advance to the finals.

Michelle Rzepecki

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goalball player

Background

Rzepecki was born on 6 November 1986 in Wollstonecraft, New South Wales, and is 173 centimetres (68 in) tall.

Career

She made her debut for the Australia women"s national goalball team at the 2011 African-Oceania regional Paralympic qualifying competition. She was selected to represent Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in goalball. Rzepecki is a goalball player, and for visual disability sports, is classified as a B3 competitor.

She is a centre and winger.

She has a goalball scholarship with the New South Wales Institute of Sport. Rzepecki started playing the sport in 2002.

She competed at the 2004 Australian National Championships, playing for the New South Wales goalball team which beat the Queensland goalball team in the finals. In 2011, Rzepecki made her national team debut during the African-Oceania regional Paralympic qualifying competition.

That the team qualifyied for the Games came as a surprise, as the Australian Paralympic Committee had been working on player development with an idea of the team qualifying for the 2016 Summer Paralympics.

An Australian team had not participated since the 2000 Summer Paralympics, when they earned an automatic selection as hosts, and the team finished last in the competition. Going into the Paralympics, her team was ranked eighth in the world. In the 2012 Summer Paralympics tournament, the Belles played games against Japan, Canada, the United States and Sweden.

They lost every game, and did not advance to the finals.

Achievements

She played in the game against the New Zealand women"s national goalball team that Australia won. The Australian Paralympic Committee had chosen to work on her development as a goalball player with the idea that she might be able to qualify for, and win a medal at, the 2016 Summer Paralympics.

Membership

As a member of the 2011 team, she finished sixth at the IBSA World Cup. She was a named a member of the Aussie Belles that was going to the 2012 Summer Paralympics, in what would be her debut Games.

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