 2012 Australian Paralympic team portrait of Rzepecki | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Nationality | Australian |
| Born | 6 November 1986 Wollstonecraft, New South Wales |
| Height | 173 cm (68 in) (2012) |
| Sport | |
| Country | Australia |
| Sport | Goalball |
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 at the 2011 African-Oceania regional Paralympic qualifying competition. She was selected to represent Australia at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in goalball.[1]
Rzepecki was born on 6 November 1986 in Wollstonecraft, New South Wales,[2] and is 173 centimetres (68 in) tall.[3] She has the visual disability rod monochromatism, which she acquired at birth.[2][4] She can play the saxophone and piano.[2] Rzepecki is a third-generation Australian, as her grandfather moved to Australia from Germany.[2] While attending Castle Hill High School,[5] 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.[5] 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.[2] Part of her work in the country was funded by a mini-grant.[6] As of 2012[update], she works as a Sydney Tower Skywalk guide.[2]
Rzepecki is a goalball player, and for visual disability sports, is classified as a B3 competitor.[2] She is a centre and winger.[3][7] She has a goalball scholarship with the New South Wales Institute of Sport.[8] Rzepecki started playing the sport in 2002.[2] 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.[2] In 2011, Rzepecki made her national team debut during the African-Oceania regional Paralympic qualifying competition.[2][3][9][10][11] She played in the game against the New Zealand women's national goalball team that Australia won.[10][11][12] As a member of the 2011 team, she finished sixth at the IBSA Goalball World Cup.[9][12][13][14]
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.[14] She was a named a member of the Aussie Belles that was going to the 2012 Summer Paralympics,[2][4][8][13][15] in what would be her debut Games.[8] 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.[13] 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.[13][16] Going into the Paralympics, her team was ranked eighth in the world.[8] 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.[17]
The Belles originally failed to qualify for the 2016 Paralympics after finishing third at the IBSA Goalball Asia Pacific Championships in Hangzhou, China.[18] They were displaced to allow for an African team, Algeria as it turned out, to compete in goalball for the first time.[19] 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.[20] 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.[19]
