Rachel Henderson (born 8 September 1992) is an Australian goalball player and is classified as a B2 competitor. While only starting playing the game in 2010, she made the national team in 2011 and competed in the 2011

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Goalball World Cup and 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

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in goalball.

Personal life

Henderson was born in

Nuriootpa, South Australia Nuriootpa ( ) is a town in South Australia and the major commercial centre of the Barossa Valley, about an hour's drive north of the state capital, Adelaide. The name of the town is reputed to be the local Aboriginal word for "meeting place". ...

, on 8 September 1992. She has the visual disability of retinitis pigmentosa, a heredity disease she was diagnosed with when she was four years old. As a child, Henderson was involved in javelin, and only stopped competing in 2010 following taking up goalball. She was also involved in swimming, representing South Australia in a few national competitions, before leaving the sport at the same time she quit athletics. She graduated from

Nuriootpa High School Nuriootpa ( ) is a town in South Australia and the major commercial centre of the Barossa Valley, about an hour's drive north of the state capital, Adelaide. The name of the town is reputed to be the local Aboriginal word for "meeting place". N ...

in 2010. , she is studying with the goal of becoming a preschool teacher.

Goalball

Henderson is a goalball player, and is classified as a B2 competitor. She has a goalball scholarship with the

South Australian Institute of Sport Sport plays an important role in the business, community, social and cultural life in South Australia. Sport as entertainment plays an important role with South Australia having the second highest rate of event attendance of all states and terri ...

. In 2011/2012, the Australian Sports Commission gave her a A$7,000 as part of their DAS grant program. She does not play for a state team. Rather, she is coached by Australian Paralympic Committee (APC) Development Coordinator and athletics coach Cathy Lambert. Having not even heard of goalball a few months before, Henderson took up the sport in 2010 following an invitation to attend a team training camp. She made the national team in January 2011 at the national trials, and her national team debut in 2011 at the

Goalball World Cup, where her team finished sixth, and she scored four total goals. Her team made it the quarter-finals before losing to Russia 3–6. It then met the

Spain women's national goalball team Spain women's national goalball team is the women's national team of Spain. Goalball is a team sport designed specifically for athletes with a visual impairment, vision impairment. The team takes part in international competitions. Paralympi ...

to try to earn a spot in the fifth/sixth place match, where Australia walked away 8–7 victors. In the fifth/sixth place match, it lost to the Israel women's national goalball team 6–8. She played in the 2011 African-Oceania regional Paralympic qualifying competition and in its gold medal game against the

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, which Australia won. Henderson was a named a member of the Aussie Belles that was going to the

. She was the youngest member of the team, and the only South Australian. That the team qualified for the Games came as a surprise, as the Australian Paralympic Committee had been working on player development with the idea of qualifying for the

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. 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. The country has not medalled in the event since 1976. Going into the Paralympics, the 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.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Henderson, Rachel Paralympic goalball players for Australia Living people 1992 births Goalball players at the 2012 Summer Paralympics South Australian Sports Institute alumni People from Nuriootpa, South Australia