Liesl Tesch prepares for her first Sydney-Hobart in 2009. Picture: Gregg Porteous Source: The Australian
LIESL Tesch won a gold medal in sailing at the London Paralympics and now the NSW central coast school teacher is having another crack at the Rolex Sydney-Hobart.
Tesch, one of our greatest Paralympians, having competed at five Games as a wheelchair basketballer in addition to London this year in the two-person SKUD boat, has again linked up with skipper David Pescud aboard the Sailors With disABILITIES entry.
Winning gold in London broke a long run of outs for her after winning two silvers and bronze as a member of the Gliders. "After 24 years of trying, it was something pretty special," Tesch said.
Tesch and London sailing partner Daniel Fitzgibbon took the gold medal with a race to spare in the two-person keelboat event.
Tesch's first taste of the Sydney-Hobart came just two years ago.
"It was my first ever big yacht race with David as the skipper and I got hooked on the sport," Tesch said.
"My specific role on the boat this time around will be trimming the headsail, a pretty safe job.
"I respect the skipper dearly - he's someone who knows what he's doing in a boat race which can throw up all sorts of different weather variables.
"Since I was selected as a member of the crew, we trained twice a week, every Tuesday and Saturday to prepare for Hobart.
"That first race two years ago turned my life around in many ways."
It was where she met her partner, Mark Thompson, a local boat builder, who is also watch captain and second in command on board the 11-year-old TP52 class yacht. This will be his seventh trip to Hobart.
"As a kid growing up around Lake Macquarie before my accident, I did a lot of water sports, particularly windsurfing and when I wasn't on the water I played basketball," Tesch said.
Her life took a sharp U-turn when a crash on her mountain bike as a 19-year-old Newcastle University student left her with incomplete paraplegia with only partial use of her legs and dependent on a wheelchair for long distances.
"I spent the next two months after the accident in a hospital bed, then I was moved to Mount Druitt in Sydney's western suburbs to a specialist facility.
"I'm classed as an incomplete paraplegic which means I can still walk, it's more of a waddle.
"It is only if I have to go long distances that I use a wheelchair."
The 43-year-old teacher at Brisbane Water Secondary Colleg, settled on the central coast six years ago after playing professional wheelchair basketball alongside men in Europe.
She first spent a year in Madrid, then three years on the Italian island of Sardinia and a further year in Paris.
"I enjoyed my time shooting hoops, but sailing is now my passion," she said. "The Hobart two years ago helped launch me into some incredible things. I'm expecting nothing different this time around."
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