Background
Melanie Domaschenz was born in Geelong, Victoria, on 13 October 1983 with spina bifida.
Melanie Domaschenz was born in Geelong, Victoria, on 13 October 1983 with spina bifida.
She was educated at Grovedale Primary and Grovedale Secondary College, and lives in the Geelong suburb of Marshall.
She is nicknamed "Doma". In addition to playing wheelchair basketball, Domaschenz has competed at a national level in archery. Domaschenz is a 1 point player, who plays guard, and usually wears the number four.
She began competing in wheelchair basketball in 1993 and first represented Australia in the sport in 2003.
She made her debut with the Australia women"s national wheelchair basketball team, known as the Gliders, at the North American Cup, and at the United States championships later that year. She later said that her greatest sporting moment was Australia"s one-point defeat of the United States.
Domaschenz played in the Under 23 Asia-Oceania Junior Championships Malaysia in 2005. She was with the Gliders again at the 2005 Oceania Qualifying Tournament in Goyang in South of Korea, and at the 2006 IWBF World Championship in Amsterdam, where the Gliders were fourth.
In 2007 Wheelchair Sports Victoria named Domaschenz their best female athlete in a team sport.
She played for the Gliders at the 2008 Roosevelt Tournament and North America Cup, and at the Osaka Cup Japan in 2008. She was also part of the team at the 2010 IWBF World Championship in Birmingham, England, in which the Gliders were again placed fourth, and at the 2010 Paralympic World Cup in Manchester. Although Domaschenz attended the Gliders" training camp in January 2012, she missed out on selection and was omitted from the Gliders squad for the 2012 Summer Paralympic Games in London.
In addition to playing for the national team, Domaschenz has played for the Dandenong Rangers in the Women"s National Wheelchair Basketball League (WNWBL).
In 2013, the team has been renamed "Victoria", but Domaschenz continues to play in the number four jersey.