Gesche Schünemann

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Gesche Schünemann
Schünemann at the 2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship in Toronto
Personal information
Nationality Germany
Born (1982-11-18) 18 November 1982 (age 41)
Height175 cm (69 in) [1]
Sport
CountryGermany
SportWheelchair basketball
Disability class4.5
EventWomen's team
ClubRSV Lahn-Dill (2008–2013)
BG Baskets Hamburg (2013–2016)
Retired2018
Achievements and titles
Paralympic finals2008 Summer Paralympics
2012 Summer Paralympics
2016 Summer Paralympics
Medal record
Women's wheelchair basketball
Representing  Germany
Paralympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2012 London Team competition
Silver medal – second place 2008 Beijing Team competition
Silver medal – second place 2016 Rio de Janeiro Team competition
World Championship
Silver medal – second place 2010 Birmingham Team competition
Silver medal – second place 2014 Toronto Team competition

Gesche Schünemann (born 18 November 1982) is a German former wheelchair basketball player and Paralympian who was part of the team that took the silver medal in the women's wheelchair basketball at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, and the gold medal-winning team in wheelchair basketball at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London.

After a promising basketball career was cut short by an Anterior cruciate ligament injury when she was a teenager, Schünemann took up wheelchair basketball, playing her first game in 2000. She went on to win five national championships with RSV Lahn-Dill. She began training with the national team in November 2005, and made her international debut at the European championships in 2007.

Biography[edit]

Schünemann (left) with Australia's Bridie Kean (right) in Sydney in July 2012. Neither uses a wheelchair off the basketball court.

Gesche Schünemann was born in Gießen on 18 November 1982.[2] She was a swimmer and basketball player.[3] Playing in a seconds game against TSV Grünberg, she was knocked down by Magdalena von Geyr [de], resulting in a torn anterior cruciate ligament and cartilage damage.[4] Several operations failed to restore her knee to a state where she could play professional basketball, although she is still able to walk.[5]

This ended Schünemann's basketball career for a time. She moved to Tübingen, where she studied sports management with a focus on sports marketing at the University of Tübingen.[4] In 2012, she worked full-time as a marketing consultant for an energy company.[6] Schünemann did some coaching and played for the regional league, but her knee still bothered her and national league offers were cancelled.[3][4]

Andreas Joneck, who later became the manager of RSV Lahn-Dill persuaded Schünemann to try wheelchair basketball. She began playing for the seconds on her 18th birthday.[4] RSV Lahn-Dill went on to win the national championship in 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013,[2] with Schünemann playing forward. In 2013, Schünemann moved to Hamburg, where her boyfriend Christian lives,[7] and now plays forward-center for BG Baskets Hamburg,[8] a mixed gender team. In April 2014, she was part of the BG Baskets Hamburg team that won the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation Euro League Challenge Cup, its first International title.[9]

In November 2005, Schünemann began training with the national team. She made her international debut at the European championships in 2007. The German national team won gold at the European championships, and went on to win it again in 2009 and 2011 before losing to the Netherlands in 2013.[4] In September 2008, she participated in the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, but Germany was beaten in the gold medal game by the United States team, taking home Paralympic silver medals instead.[10] After the Paralympics, the team's performance was considered impressive enough for it to be named the national "Team of the Year",[11] and it received the Silver Laurel Leaf, Germany's highest sporting honour, from German President Horst Köhler.[12]

The German team hoped for a rematch against the United States at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London,[10] but instead faced the team that had beaten the Americans, the Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team.[13] They defeated the Australians in front of a crowd of over 12,000 to win the gold medal,[12] Gesche Schünemann the first time that Germany had won in women's wheelchair basketball at the Paralympics since 1984.[14] They were awarded a second Silver Laurel Leaf by President Joachim Gauck in November 2012,[15] and were again named Team of the Year for 2012.[15]

After the Paralympics, Schünemann was required to rest for three months after surgery to repair the damaged tendons of the little right finger,[16] but returned for the European Championships in 2013, which Germany lost to the Netherlands.[17] In 2014, she won silver at the 2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship in Toronto, where the German team was defeated by Canada in the final.[18] The German team beat the Netherlands in the 2015 European Championships, to claim its tenth European title.[19] At the 2016 Paralympic Games, it won silver after losing the final to the United States.[20]

She retired from wheelchair basketball in 2016 and from the national team in 2018.[21]

Achievements[edit]

  • 2007: Gold European Championships (Wetzlar, Germany) [2][22]
  • 2008: Silver Paralympic Games (Beijing, China) [2]
  • 2009: Gold European Championships (Stoke Mandeville, England) [2][22]
  • 2010: Silver World Championships (Birmingham, England) [23]
  • 2011: Gold European Championships (Nazareth, Israel) [24]
  • 2012: Gold Paralympic Games (London, England) [13]
  • 2013: Silver European Championships (Frankfurt, Germany) [2][17]
  • 2014: Silver at the World Championships (Toronto, Canada) [18][25]
  • 2015: Gold at the European Championships (Worcester, England) [19]
  • 2016: Silver at the Paralympic Games (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)[20][26]

Awards[edit]

  • 2008: Team of the Year [11]
  • 2008: Silver Laurel Leaf [12]
  • 2012: Team of the Year [14]
  • 2012: Silver Laurel Leaf [15]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Schünemann, Gesche" (in German). infostradasports. Archived from the original on 29 March 2014. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
  2. ^ a b c d e f "#10 Gesche Schünemann" (in German). BG Baskets Hamburg. Archived from the original on 27 March 2014. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
  3. ^ a b "Gesche Schuenemann - Wheelchair Basketball - Paralympic Athlete - London 2012". Official site of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 26 May 2013. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Der Rollstuhl ist mein Sportgerät" (in German). mittelhessen.de. Archived from the original on 19 September 2016. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
  5. ^ "Ich war eine ganz lahme Kartoffel". Die Welt (in German). 29 December 2013. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
  6. ^ Grüling, Birk (16 November 2012). "Wenn die Karriere ins Rollen kommt". Der Spiegel (in German).
  7. ^ "Weil Christian nicht mehr alleine ins Bett gehen will: Nationalspielerin Gesche Schünemann zieht um". Rolling Planet (in German). 9 May 2013. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
  8. ^ "Rollstuhlbasketball-Bundesliga 2009 / 2010 - Gesche Schünemann" (in German). Keyscout. Archived from the original on 26 March 2014. Retrieved 26 March 2014.
  9. ^ "BG Baskets Hamburg triumphieren in Badajoz" (in German). BG Baskets Hamburg. Archived from the original on 30 April 2014. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
  10. ^ a b Joisten, Bernd (20 October 2010). "Edina Müller: "Ich bin ein Mensch, der nach vorn blickt"". General-Anzeiger (in German). Retrieved 5 February 2012.
  11. ^ a b "Goldenes Buch: Palavern bei Sekt ist nicht ihr Ding". Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger (in German). 4 February 2009. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
  12. ^ a b c "Edina Müller: "Herzsprung" beim Einlauf ins Olympiastadion in Peking" (in German). Bundesministerium für Gesundheit. Archived from the original on 17 June 2013. Retrieved 5 February 2013.
  13. ^ a b "Germany claim women's crown". Official site of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. 7 September 2012. Archived from the original on 30 April 2013. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  14. ^ a b "Rollstuhlbasketballerinnen sind Mannschaft des Jahres" (in German). HSV-Rollstuhlsport. 26 November 2012. Archived from the original on 27 June 2015. Retrieved 27 June 2015.
  15. ^ a b c "Verleihung des Silbernen Lorbeerblattes" (in German). Bundespräsidialamt. 7 November 2012. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  16. ^ "Operation: Gesche Schünemann fällt drei Monate aus". Rolling Planet (in German). 3 December 2012. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
  17. ^ a b "Rollstuhlbasketball-EM: Deutsche Damen nach über einem Jahrzehnt entthront". Rolling Planet (in German). 6 July 2013. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
  18. ^ a b Joneck, Andreas. "Deutscher WM-Traum platzt zum zweiten Mal" (in German). Team Germany. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 6 July 2014.
  19. ^ a b "Germany earn 10th women's European Wheelchair Basketball Championship title as hosts Britain win men's gold". Inside the Games. 6 September 2015. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  20. ^ a b "USA clinch women's basketball gold". International Paralympic Committee. 16 September 2016. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
  21. ^ "Interview mit Gesche Schünemann: "Gerne hätte ich für die deutsche Nationalmannschaft noch ein letztes Mal in meinem alten Wohnzimmer gespielt"". Rollt. Das Magazin für Rollstuhlbasketball in Deutschland. (in German). 16 August 2018. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  22. ^ a b "History IWBF Europe". International Wheelchair basketball Federation. Archived from the original on 29 March 2014. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
  23. ^ "53:55 – dem Titel so nah". Outrun (Sportmagazin) [de] (in German). Archived from the original on 29 March 2014. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
  24. ^ "Nu Nguyen-Thi darf nicht mit: Holger Glinicki benennt Kader für die Paralympics". Rolling Planet (in German). 12 June 2012. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  25. ^ "2014 WWWBC: Germany". Wheelchair Basketball Canada. Archived from the original on 2 February 2015. Retrieved 28 June 2014.
  26. ^ "Paralympic - Wheelchair Basketball Women Germany". Rio 2016. Archived from the original on 23 September 2016. Retrieved 17 September 2016.

External links[edit]

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