Mareike Adermann

Mareike Miller

Mareike Adermann in Sydney, July 2012
Personal information
Nickname(s)	MA
Nationality	Germany
Born	(1990-08-03) 3 August 1990 (age 27)
Sport
Country	Germany
Sport	Wheelchair basketball
Disability class	4.5
Event(s)	Women's team
Team	UWW Warhawks
Coached by	Daniel T. Price
Achievements and titles
Paralympic finals	2012 Paralympics, 2016 Paralympics
Medal record Wheelchair basketball Paralympic Games 2012 London Women's Wheelchair basketball 2016 Rio de Janeiro Women's Wheelchair basketball IWBF World Championship 2010 Birmingham, Great Britain Women's wheelchair basketball 2014 Toronto, Canada Women's wheelchair basketball

Mareike Miller née Adermann (born 3 August 1990) is a 4.5 point wheelchair basketball player, who plays for the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater in the United States. She has also played for the German national team, with which she won two European titles, was runner-up at 2010 World Championships, and won a gold medal at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. President Joachim Gauck awarded the team Germany's highest sporting honour, the Silbernes Lorbeerblatt (Silver Laurel Leaf).

Mareike Adermann was born on 3 August 1990, the daughter of Karl-Heinz and Kristin. She has a brother, Nils. She is nicknamed "MA". She is married to Desiree Miller, a member of the USA Women's Paralympic Wheelchair Basketball Team, and now goes by the name Mareike Miller.

Adermann began playing basketball at the age of seven, and made her debut at the women's regional championships in Germany when she was 14. In that first game, she suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament. Over the next four years, she underwent knee surgery four times, three in the right knee, and once in the left, leaving her knees scarred. On each occasion she took eight months to recover, and ruptured an anterior cruciate ligament within weeks of returning to playing.

At the age of 18, Adermann was forced to give up her dream of playing basketball. However, a physical education teacher suggested that she try wheelchair basketball, a sport she had never heard of. Although she is a wheelchair basketball player, Adermann does not require a wheelchair for everyday activities, and is classified as a 4.5 point player, the lowest level of disability. Being able to move her body fully gives the 180 centimetres (71 in) tall center a height advantage, but she found that shooting from the free throw line in a chair requires as much force as shooting standing from the three-point line.