 2016 Australian Paralympic team portrait | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nationality |  Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 18 August 1995 Maroubra, New South Wales, Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Boccia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Disability class | BC3 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Daniel "Dan' Michel (born 18 August 1995) is an Australian boccia player. He represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics and 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. He won the bronze medal in the Mixed B3 at the Tokyo Paralympics. [1] He won two gold medals at the 2022 World Championships.
Michel was born on 18 August 1995 in the eastern Sydney suburb of Maroubra, New South Wales, before his family relocated to the Sutherland Shire in the early 2000s. [2] His mother is of Dutch origin, having been born in The Netherlands and immigrating to Australia in the early 1990s, whilst his father is Australian. He was born with spinal muscular atrophy which means he has minimal movement and strength throughout his body. [3] Daniel attended Heathcote High School and graduated in 2013.
Michel was introduced to boccia as a 15 year old through a Muscular Dystrophy NSW camp. He is classified as a BC3 athlete. [3] [4] He came third in his first junior titles and this gave him the encouragement to increase his training. [3] This led to him winning the junior title at his second attempt. [3] Michel was then selected in an Australian Paralympic Committee Paralympic Preparation Program for the Rio Games. [3] His first international competition was at the 2013 Asia and Oceania Championships where he finished fifth and attained a world ranking of 35. [3] [4] At the 2014 World Championships in Beijing, China, he finished 36th. [3] He finished sixth at the 2016 Boccia Individual World Championships. [5] In 2016, he was a New South Wales Institute of Sport scholarship holder and is coached by Australian head coach Ken Halliday. [5] He was selected to represent Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics, becoming the first Australian player selected to compete at the Paralympics since 2000. [5]
Michel on his Rio Paralympics selection stated" [5]
I'm hoping it's going to have a huge impact on the sport and on the reputation and perception of people with severe disabilities. The overriding public perception surrounding severe disabilities is that people living with these disabilities aren't really capable of succeeding in a sporting atmosphere. There's an emphasis on being successful through academia, but sport is never really promoted as an avenue through which people with severe physical disabilities can achieve enjoyment and also success.
At the Rio Games, Michel won his first pool match in the Mixed individual BC3 but lost his second and did not advance. [6]
Michel won the bronze medal in the Individual BC3 at the 2018 World Championships, Liverpool, England. [7] He teamed with Spencer Cotie and Cal Simpson to win the silver medal in Mixed Pairs BC3.
As of February 2020, Michel is a 4 × World Open champion and has a world ranking of 4.
At the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, Michel won two of his three Pool Matches and qualified for the Quarterfinals. Here he beat Hansoo Kim of Korea 8–0. In the semifinals he lost to Adam Peska of the Czech Republic 3–4. Michel went on to beat Scott McCowan of Great Britain 6–1 in the bronze medal playoff. By doing so, Michel won Australia's first individual medal for boccia by winning the bronze medal in the Mixed BC3. Australia's previous boccia medal was in the Pairs C1 at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics. [8] He teamed with Spencer Cotie and Jamieson Leeson in the Mixed Pairs BC3, where they won 2 and lost 2 matches but failed to qualify for the quarter-finals. His ramp assistant was Ashlee McClure.
Michel won the two gold medals at the 2022 World Championships in Rio de Janeiro - Men's BC3 and Mixed Pairs BC3 with Jamieson Leeson. He defeated José Gonçalves 5–1 in the final of the Men's BC3. [9]
He competed at the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris with his ramp assistant Ash Maddern. [10] He won silver medal in the Men's BC3, Australia's best ever performance in boccia. [11] [12] Michel and Jamieson Leeson lost in the Mixed pairs BC3 quarter-finals.
In 2023, Michel with Jamieson Leeson was awarded the Sport NSW Team of the Year with a Disability, [13] and Australian Institute of Sport Performance Awards Team of the Year. [14]
Boccia is a precision ball sport, similar to bocce, and related to bowls and pétanque. The name "boccia" is derived from the Latin word for "boss" – bottia. The sport is contested at local, national and international levels, by athletes with severe physical disabilities. It was originally designed to be played by people with cerebral palsy but now includes athletes with other severe disabilities affecting motor skills. In 1984, it became a Paralympic sport and as of 2020, 75 boccia national organizations have joined one or more of the international organizations. Boccia is governed by the Boccia International Sports Federation (BISFed) and is one of two Paralympic sports that have no counterpart in the Olympic program, although it is a Paralympic variant of bocce (boules).
Daniel Fitzgibbon, is an Australian Paralympic sailor, who won a silver medal at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing. He won gold medals at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Paralympics with partner Liesl Tesch in the two person SKUD 18.
BC3 is a boccia classification. The class is open to people with several different types of disabilities, including cerebral palsy. BC3 players have events open to them in boccia on the Paralympic Games program.
BC4 is a boccia classification.
Grigorios Polychronidis is a Greek boccia player with a Paralympic boccia classification of BC3. His specific disability is Spinal Muscular Atrophy.
Boccia at the 2016 Summer Paralympics was held in Riocentro, in the Barra district of Rio de Janeiro in September 2016, with a maximum of 104 athletes competing in seven events. The programme consisted of four individual events, two pairs events, and one team event, spread across four classifications.
South Korea competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 to 18 September 2016.
Slovakia competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 to 18 September 2016.
Belgium competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 to 18 September 2016.
Singapore competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 September to 18 September 2016.
Nikolaos Pananos, born on 29 March 1968 in Athens, is a Greek boccia player with a Paralympic boccia classification of BC3. His specific disability is cerebral palsy. He won the gold medal during the 2012 Summer Paralympics in BC3 mixed pairs along with Maria-Eleni Kordali and Grigorios Polychronidis. In the 2016 Summer Paralympics he won the bronze medal at the same event.
Boccia was the first cerebral palsy sport to be added to the Paralympic program in the 1984 Summer Paralympics.
Spencer Cotie is an Australian boccia player. He represented Australia at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics.
Jamieson Leeson is an Australian boccia player. She represented Australia at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. She won a gold and silver medal at the 2022 World Championships.
The mixed pairs BC3 boccia event at the 2020 Summer Paralympics will be contested between 2 and 4 September 2021 at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre. Since this event is a mixed event, both genders, male and female, compete in the event.
Kirsten De Laender is a Belgian Paralympian. Her first Paralympics was London 2012, where she won a bronze medal in boccia for mixed pairs BC3. De Laender also competed in the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Pieter Cilissen is a Belgian Paralympian and Boccia player. His active playing career started in 1997 at the age of 19 and ended in 2019 at the age of 41, making his career of 22 years at the international stage a near unicum. His first Paralympics was Sydney 2000 where he finished 5th in the Pairs with Jean-Luc Béro. He missed Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 but in London 2012, he won a bronze medal in boccia for mixed pairs BC3. Cilissen also competed in the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro but failed to get a medal.
Alison Levine is a Canadian boccia competitor.
Will Arnott was a British Paralympian who made his Paralympic debut in boccia at the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris.
Stefanía Ferrando is an Argentine boccia player. She is a two-time medalist at the Parapan American Games and a bronze medalist at the Summer Paralympics.
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