 Robyn Love | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationality | British | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 28 August 1990 Ayr, Scotland | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 164 cm (5 ft 5 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 60 kg (9 st 6 lb; 132 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||
| Country | Great Britain | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Wheelchair basketball | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Disability class | 3.5 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Event | Women's team | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Lothian Phoenix | ||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||||||||
Robyn Love (born 28 August 1990) is a 3.5 point British wheelchair basketball player who represented Great Britain at the 2016 Paralympic Games and 2024 Paralympic Games.
Robyn Love was born in Ayr, Scotland, on 28 August 1990. [1] She was born with arthrogryposis, a rare condition in which the muscles are shortened, due to the wrapping of the umbilical cord around her legs. [2] As a result, her right leg is shorter than her left, and she is missing muscles in both legs. At school, she played football and tennis, but refused to participate in athletics because she knew her disability prevented her from running as fast as the other kids. [3] During her 2008 gap year before university, surgeons at Glasgow Royal Infirmary attempted to lengthen her leg by breaking it and using plaster and pins to keep it straight. The pins had to be tightened daily, which was excruciatingly painful. They also inserted a plate in her femur that helped her walk better, but her right leg remained 10 centimetres (3.9 in) shorter, and she still walked with a limp. In 2009, she entered Edinburgh Napier University, where she studied biomedical sciences. One of the first things she did was to find sports organisations, and she started playing basketball. [2]
By embracing her disability, Love was set on the path to becoming an elite athlete. A friend suggested she try wheelchair basketball. Love attended a "come and try" day run by the Lothian Phoenix club in November 2013, and met Tina Gordon from Sportscotland, [2] [3] who became her coach. [1] Love was classified a 3.5-point player, and Gordon trained her, and even bought her a £1,000 wheelchair basketball sports chair. Love played her first wheelchair basketball game in January 2014, shooting 16 points in a winning game. [2] [3] She went on to win the Scottish Cup with Lothian Phoenix and the Scottish Universities Cup with Edinburgh Napier University. [4] In October 2014, she attended a national team training camp, [2] and in 2015 she relocated to the University of Worcester, where the national team is based. She made her international debut with the national team at the Osaka Cup in Japan in February 2015, winning silver. [5] This was followed by bronze at the European Championships in September 2015, securing a place for the British team at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. [5] [6] In May 2016, she was selected as part of the side for Rio. [7] The British team produced its best ever performance at the Paralympics, making it all the way to the semi-finals, but lost to the semi-final to the United States, and then the bronze medal match to the Netherlands. [8]
She is engaged to fellow wheelchair basketball player Laurie Williams. [12] They have a child together. [13]
Simon Munn is a British wheelchair basketball player. He is originally from Aylesbury.
Mackenzie Soldan is an American wheelchair basketball and wheelchair tennis player. She represented the United States at the 2011 Parapan American Games where she won two gold medals, 2012 London Paralympics in wheelchair tennis and 2016 Rio Paralympics in wheelchair basketball. She has played for the U.S. women's wheelchair basketball team since 2013.
Simone Kues is a German 1.0 point national wheelchair basketball player who plays in the wheelchair basketball league for Hamburg SV. She joined the national team, and participated in the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, at which the German team came fourth. She won bronze at the World Wheelchair Basketball Championships in Amsterdam in 2006. Her team were won the European championship in 2005, 2007 and 2009. She won a silver medal at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing. The women's national team were voted Team of the Year in disabled sports in 2008, and President Horst Köhler awarded them the Silver Laurel Leaf, Germany's highest German sports award.
Laura Fürst is a German 2.0 point national wheelchair basketball player who plays in the wheelchair basketball league for RBB Munich, and for the German national team, with which she won silver at the 2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship in Toronto.
Great Britain and Northern Ireland competed, under the name Great Britain, at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 September to 18 September 2016. The first places for which the team qualified were for six athletes in sailing events.
Sophie Carrigill is a 1.0 point British wheelchair basketball player who represented Great Britain at the 2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship in Toronto and the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Laurie Anne Williams is a 2.5 point British-Irish wheelchair basketball player who participated at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo and the 2024 Summer Paralympics in Paris representing Great Britain.
Amy Conroy is a 4.0 point British wheelchair basketball player who represented Great Britain in the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, the 2016 Summer Paralympics in a Rio de Janeiro, co captained the team to win Gold in the under 25 World Wheelchair Basketball Championships in Beijing and won a silver medal at the 2018 World Wheelchair Basketball Championships in Hamburg.
Joy Haizelden is a 2.5 point British wheelchair basketball player who was the youngest player to represent Great Britain at the 2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship in Toronto. She also went to Paris to compete at the 2024 Paralympics.
Charlotte Moore is a wheelchair racer who has won four Virgin London wheelchair mini-marathons, a wheelchair tennis player and a 1.0 point wheelchair basketball player who represented Great Britain at the 2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship in Toronto and the 2018 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship in Hamburg.
Jordanna Bartlett is a 3.0 point British wheelchair basketball player who represented Great Britain at the 2015 Women's U25 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship in Beijing.
Leah Evans is a 2.0 point British wheelchair basketball player who represented Great Britain at the 2015 Women's U25 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship in Beijing.
Katie Morrow is a 4.5 point British wheelchair basketball player who was the youngest player selected for Team GB wheelchair basketball team at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Helen Freeman is a 4.0 point British wheelchair basketball player who represented Great Britain in five European championships, and at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London and the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Clare Griffiths née Strange is a 1.5 point British wheelchair basketball player who represented Great Britain at the 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 Paralympic Games.
Judith Hamer is a 4.0 point British wheelchair basketball player who represented Great Britain at the 2012 and 2016 Paralympic Games. She won a Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Award for bravery and trekked across the Andes Mountains in Ecuador as part of a reality television show, Beyond Boundaries.
Lauren Rachel Catherine Rowles, is a British parasport rower and former wheelchair athlete. She won gold with Laurence Whiteley in the trunk-arms mixed double sculls (TAMix2x) at the 2016 Summer Paralympics.The pair repeated their achievement in Tokyo at the 2021 Summer Paralympics.
Madeleine Thompson is a 4 point British wheelchair basketball player. In 2008, at the age of thirteen, she became the youngest ever player to represent Great Britain in wheelchair basketball. She was part of the British team at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, the 2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship in Toronto, and the 2018 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship in Hamburg.
Anne Patzwald is a German 1.0 point wheelchair basketball player, who played for the German national team at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, winning silver. President Joachim Gauck awarded the team Germany's highest sporting honour, the Silbernes Lorbeerblatt.
Barbara Gross is a 4.5 point wheelchair basketball player, who played for the German national team at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, winning silver. President Joachim Gauck awarded the team Germany's highest sporting honour, the Silbernes Lorbeerblatt.
|  | |
