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Michelle Rzepecki (born 6 November 1986) is an Australian goalball player classified as a B3 competitor. She made her debut for the
Australia women's national goalball team Goalball is a team sport designed specifically for athletes with a visual impairment, vision impairment. Australia commenced its involvement in the sport in 1980. Its women's team has completed in trans-Tasman competitions, the International B ...
at the 2011 African-Oceania regional Paralympic qualifying competition. She was selected to represent
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
at the
2016 Summer Paralympics ) , nations = 159 , athletes = 4,342 , opening = 7 September , closing = 18 September , opened_by = President Michel Temer , cauldron = Clodoaldo Silva , events = 528 in 22 sports , stadium = Maracanã , sum ...
in goalball.


Personal life

Rzepecki was born on 6 November 1986 in
Wollstonecraft, New South Wales Wollstonecraft (, ) is a harbourside suburb on the lower North Shore of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 4 kilometres north of the Sydney central business district, in the local government area of North Sydney Council. History Wollstonecraf ...
, and is tall. She has the visual disability
rod monochromatism Achromatopsia, also known as Rod monochromacy, is a medical syndrome that exhibits symptoms relating to five conditions, most notably monochromacy. Historically, the name referred to monochromacy in general, but now typically refers only to an au ...
, which she acquired at birth. She can play the saxophone and piano. Rzepecki is a third-generation Australian, as her grandfather moved to Australia from Germany. While attending
Castle Hill High School Castle Hill High School, located in Castle Street, Castle Hill, New South Wales, Australia, is a Mixed-sex education, co-educational and comprehensive school with students ranging from year 7 to year 12, established in 1963. Castle Hill High Sch ...
, she returned to the country of her grandfather's birth to do study abroad that was funded by a scholarship from the Society for Australian-German Student Exchange Inc. She also lived in Bolivia for a while, working at a school for children with visual impairments. While there, she introduced the children to goalball. Part of her work in the country was funded by a mini-grant. , she works as a Sydney Tower Skywalk guide.


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 The New South Wales Institute of Sport (NSWIS) is a high performance sports training institute located in New South Wales, Australia. The New South Wales government agency provides world leading coaching, performance support and daily training ...
. Rzepecki started playing the sport in 2002. She competed at the 2004 Australian National Goalball 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. She played in the game against the
New Zealand women's national goalball team New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator ...
that Australia won. As a member of the 2011 team, she finished sixth at the
IBSA IBSA may stand for: * India-Brazil-South Africa Dialogue Forum, commonly known as IBSA, a three-country alignment * IBSA Group, a pharmaceutical Company headquartered in Switzerland * International Bible Students Association, a corporate not-for ...
Goalball World Cup. 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 ) , nations = 159 , athletes = 4,342 , opening = 7 September , closing = 18 September , opened_by = President Michel Temer , cauldron = Clodoaldo Silva , events = 528 in 22 sports , stadium = Maracanã , sum ...
. She was a named a member of the Aussie Belles that was going to the
2012 Summer Paralympics The 2012 Summer Paralympics, branded as the London 2012 Paralympic Games, were an international multi-sport parasports event held from 29 August to 9 September 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. They were the 14th Summer Paralympic Gam ...
, in what would be her debut Games. That the team qualified 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 ) , nations = 159 , athletes = 4,342 , opening = 7 September , closing = 18 September , opened_by = President Michel Temer , cauldron = Clodoaldo Silva , events = 528 in 22 sports , stadium = Maracanã , sum ...
. An Australian team had not participated since 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 last time that the Summer Paralympics which were organized by two different ...
, 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. The Belles originally failed to qualify for the 2016 Paralympics after finishing third at the IBSA Goalball Asia Pacific Championships in Hangzhou,
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. They were displaced to allow for an African team, Algeria as it turned out, to compete in goalball for the first time. But following the re-allocation of Russia's spot, the Belles found themselves getting a last minute invite to Rio.They entered the tournament ranked ninth in the world. They performed better this time, fighting Uzbekistan to a draw, but they needed a win or draw in their final game against Canada to progress to the quarter finals, but lost 6–0, ending their second Paralympic campaign.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rzepecki, Michelle Paralympic goalball players for Australia Living people 1986 births Goalball players at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Goalball players at the 2016 Summer Paralympics New South Wales Institute of Sport alumni