Gesche Schünemann

Gesche Schünemann

Gesche Schünemann at the 2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship in Toronto in 2014
Personal information
Nationality	Germany
Born	(1982-11-18) 18 November 1982 (age 34)
Height	175 cm (69 in)
Sport
Country	Germany
Sport	Wheelchair basketball
Disability class	4.5
Event(s)	Women's team
Club	RSV Lahn-Dill (2008–2013) BG Baskets Hamburg (2013–)
Achievements and titles
Paralympic finals	2008 Summer Paralympics 2012 Summer Paralympics 2016 Summer Paralympics
Medal record Wheelchair basketball Paralympic Games 2012 London Women's Wheelchair basketball 2008 Beijing Women's Wheelchair basketball 2016 Rio de Janeiro Women's Wheelchair basketball World Championship 2010 Birmingham Women's Wheelchair basketball 2014 Toronto, Canada Women's wheelchair basketball

Gesche Schünemann (born 18 November 1982) is a German 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.

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

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. In 2012, she worked full-time as a marketing consultant for an energy company. Schünemann did some coaching and played for the regional league, but her knee still bothered her and national league offers were cancelled.