Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team

Australia
IWBF Ranking	2nd
IWBF zone	Asia Oceania
National federation	Basketball Australia
Coach	David Gould since 2016
Nickname(s)	Gliders
Paralympic Games
Appearances	6
Medals	: :3 :1
World Championships
Medals	: : :3
Uniforms
Light Dark
Medal record Paralympic Games 2000 Sydney Women's wheelchair basketball 2004 Athens Women's wheelchair basketball 2008 Beijing Women's wheelchair basketball 2012 London Women's wheelchair basketball World Wheelchair Basketball Championships 1994 Women 1998 Women 2002 Women Osaka Cup 2007 Women 2008 Women 2009 Women 2010 Women 2011 Women 2012 Women 2013 Women 2015 Women Joseph F. Lyttle World Basketball Challenge 2008 Women's wheelchair

The Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team is the women's wheelchair basketball side that represents Australia in international competitions. The team is known as the Gliders. The team hasn't won a gold medal for Australia since it began competing at the 1992 Summer Paralympics, however it has won either the silver or bronze medal since the 2000 Summer Paralympics held in Sydney. Gliders finished 6th at the 2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship but did not qualify for the 2016 Summer Paralympics.

Women's wheelchair basketball was first played at the 1968 Summer Paralympics in Tel Aviv, but Australia did not have a team that competed until 1992 in Barcelona.

The 1996 Summer Paralympics were the first Paralympics basketball tournament to feature the three-wheeled wheelchair. Most of the women on the Australian team opted to use the traditional four-wheeled wheelchair.

Prior to the start of the 1996 Paralympics, Australia was ranked third in the world after their bronze medal at the 1994 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship, behind first placed Canada and United States. In lead up preparations for the games, the team toured Canada. Australia's women's team beat the American team at the Paralympics in pool play. This was viewed as extremely significant by Australian women's wheelchair basketball fans and the Australian Paralympic Federation because the game was invented in America. Also, it was the first time that the Australian women had defeated the Americans. The match had even more significance because Australia needed to win it in order to stay in contention for a medal. Australia was down 21–16 at halftime. Australia went up with seven minutes left in the second half. The match finished with a score of 31–27 in Australia's favour. American Sharon Herbst was their team's start performer and she caused a number of problems for Australia's defence. During the game, several players were knocked out of their wheelchairs, including Australia's Melissa Ferrett. The Americans challenged the win, protesting because they believed the Australians were not wearing matching uniforms. Australia beat Brazil 67–8, beat the USA 31–27 and lost to Germany 34–26 in pool play. They lost to Canada in the semi-finals, going down 31–36. They played the Americans in the bronze medal match, losing 30–41. The team's top scorer in the competition was Liesl Tesch.

...
Wikipedia