Marnie Peters (born in either 1970 or 1971) is a Canadian former wheelchair basketball player and accessibility consultant who won gold medals in each of the women's wheelchair basketball tournament at the

2000 Summer Paralympics The 2000 Summer Paralympic Games or the XI Summer Paralympics were held in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, between 18 and 29 October. The Sydney Paralympics was the last time that the Summer Paralympics were organized by two different Organ ...

and the 2002 Women's Wheelchair Basketball World Championship. She was also part of the Ottawa Shooters team that won the 1995 Canadian Wheelchair Basketball League National Championship and took gold at the women's wheelchair basketball competition at the 1999 Parapan American Games.

Personal background

Peters was born in either 1970 or 1971 and comes from

Grimsby, Ontario Grimsby is a town on Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Niagara, Niagara Region, Ontario, Canada. Grimsby is at the eastern end of the Hamilton, Ontario, Hamilton List of census metropolitan areas and agglomerations in Canada, Census Met ...

, close to

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

. At age 17, she lost the use of both her legs in an automobile accident. Peters opted to relocate to Ottawa to study at the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a Official bilingualism in Canada, bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ot ...

Career

She had played in sports prior to her paralysis and was disinterested in learning about disabled sports because she was angry and had other tasks to do. Peters changed her mind when she began gaining weight during her first year of university and thought of taking up

wheelchair basketball Wheelchair basketball is a style of basketball played using a sports wheelchair. The International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) is the governing body for this sport. It is recognized by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) as ...

to learn how it was played. At first, she did not want to play the sport competitively until she started to play it more and earned a nomination to be drafted to the

Canada women's national wheelchair basketball team The Canada women's national wheelchair basketball team is one of Canada's most successful national sporting teams. It is the only national women's wheelchair basketball team to have won three consecutive gold medals at the Paralympic Games in 1992 ...

. At the 1995 Canadian Wheelchair Basketball League National Championship held in Montpetit Hall, Ottawa, Peters was part of the Ottawa Shooters team that came from behind to claim the gold medal with a 74–68 win over Kitsilano Crunch with her contributing

points A point is a small dot or the sharp tip of something. Point or points may refer to: Mathematics * Point (geometry), an entity that has a location in space or on a plane, but has no extent; more generally, an element of some abstract topologica ...

in the championship match. She was selected to be an alternate for the Canada women's national wheelchair basketball squad at the

1996 Summer Paralympics The 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, United States, were held from August 16 to 25. It was the first Paralympics to get mass media sponsorship, and had a budget of USD $81 million. It was the first Paralympic Games where Internatio ...

in Atlanta, United States, and joined the national side two years later. Peters was part of the team that defeated the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

46–34 at the championship match of the women's wheelchair basketball competition held as part of the 1999 Parapan American Games in Mexico City to earn qualification to the women's wheelchair basketball tournament staged at the

in Sydney, Australia. In Sydney, the Canadian team she played with won every group match as well as the semi-final to earn gold medal honors in the final. She continued playing for the Canada women's national squad for the 2001–2002 season, and she was part of the gold medal-winning side at the 2002 Women's Wheelchair Basketball World Championship that took place in

Kitakyushu is a Cities of Japan, city located in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. As of June 1, 2019, Kitakyushu has an estimated population of 940,978, making it the second-largest city in both Fukuoka Prefecture and the island of Kyushu after the city of Fuk ...

, Japan. Peters competed for the local basketball club Ottawa Jazz that forms part of the Ottawa Carleton Wheelchair Sports Association, and she volunteered with the Royal Tip-Off program aiding elementary and secondary school students get more aware and accepting of wheelchair users. She was due to play in the women's wheelchair basketball competition at the

2004 Summer Paralympics The 2004 Summer Paralympics (), the 12th Summer Paralympic Games, were a major international multi-sport event for athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee, held in Athens, Greece, from 17 to 28 September ...

in Athens, Greece until the Canadian Wheelchair Basketball Association opted not to include her on the final squad list. Peters' appeal against the decision was rejected. Peters has been president of the Accessibility Simplified disability access company for more than two decades. She is also executive officer of the non-profit Global Alliance on Accessible Technologies and Environments

non-governmental organization A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

that promotes accessibility of built and virtual environments. Peters was project manager of several complex Universal Design and auditing projects and was a team member on several other projects. She developed comprehensive code comparison matrices and has partaken in developing accessibility guidelines, presentations, training and standards. Peters helped to research and develop technical databases to apply technical requirements for building codes in Canada and abroad.

Media appearances

She was featured in the final episode of the six-part ''They've Got Game'' documentary television series broadcast on WTSN in January 2003. Peters broadcast the German documentary ''

My Way to Olympia ''My Way to Olympia'' is a 2013 feature documentary produced and directed by Niko von Glasow, which follows disabled athletes preparing to compete at the London 2012 Paralympics. The film focuses on Matt Stutzman, an armless American archer; No ...

'' as part of NWT Disability Awareness Week in

Yellowknife Yellowknife is the capital, largest community, and the only city in the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake, about south of the Arctic Circle, on the west side of Yellowknife Bay near the outlet of t ...

on June 10, 2015.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peters, Marnie Living people People with paraplegia Canadian women's wheelchair basketball players Wheelchair basketball players at the 2000 Summer Paralympics Medalists at the 2000 Summer Paralympics Paralympic wheelchair basketball players for Canada Paralympic medalists in wheelchair basketball Paralympic gold medalists for Canada 20th-century Canadian sportswomen 21st-century Canadian sportswomen Sportspeople from Grimsby, Ontario Year of birth missing (living people)