Maya Lindholm

Maya Lindholm
Maya Lindholm in Sydney, July 2012
Personal information
Nationality Germany
Born (1990-12-20) 20 December 1990 (age 33)
Sport
CountryGermany
SportWheelchair basketball
PositionPower forward
Disability class2.5
EventWomen's team
TeamHamburger SV
BG Baskets Hamburg
Coached byHolger Glinicki
Achievements and titles
Paralympic finals2012 Paralympics, 2016 Paralympics
Medal record
Women's wheelchair basketball
Representing  Germany
Paralympic Games
Gold medal – first place 2012 London Team competition
Silver medal – second place 2016 Rio de Janeiro Team competition
World Championship
Silver medal – second place 2010 Birmingham Team competition
Silver medal – second place 2014 Toronto Team competition
Bronze medal – third place 2018 Hamburg Team competition

Maya Lindholm (born 20 December 1990) is a 2.5 point wheelchair basketball player, who played with the German national team that won a gold medal at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. It also won a European title in 2011 and was runner-up in 2013. President Joachim Gauck awarded the team Germany's highest sporting honour, the Silbernes Lorbeerblatt (Silver Laurel Leaf).

Biography

Maya Lindholm was born in Hamburg on 20 December 1990.[1][2] In 2004, she awoke one morning with severe back pain, and within hours she could no longer move her legs. Doctors diagnosed spinal cord inflammation.[3][4] She is studying to be an occupational therapist at the BG Trauma Hospital in Hamburg Boberg. She began playing wheelchair basketball for fun at the hospital in 2005. In 2009, she was selected as part of the national team.[5]

Classified as a 2.5 point player, Lindholm plays power forward.[6] She was part of the team that won the European Championships in Nazareth, Israel, in 2011, thereby qualifying for the 2012 Summer Paralympic Games in London. As part of the team's preparation, they toured the United States and Australia.[5][7] The German team went through the group stage undefeated, but started off slow in its games against the United States and China, winning these games by six-point margins, and seemed to play its best basketball only in the final minutes of a game.[8]

In the Gold Medal match in London, the team faced the Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team,[9] which had defeated them 48–46 in Sydney just a few months before.[9][10] In front of a crowd of over 12,985 at the North Greenwich Arena, they defeated the Australians 58–44 to win the gold medal,[9] the first that Germany had won in women's wheelchair basketball since 1984.[11] They were awarded the Silver Laurel Leaf by President Joachim Gauck in November 2012,[12] They were also named Team of the Year in Disability Sports for 2012,[11] an annual award voted for by 3,000 members of the Association of German Sports Journalists.[13]

Lindholm's local team, Hamburger SV, which also included national teammates Mareike Adermann and Edina Müller (and Australia's Bridie Kean) won the women's national championship for the eighth time in 2013.[14] Lindholm was also part of the Hamburger SV team that had previously won it in 2010.[15]

The German national team was not so fortunate, losing the final of the European Championship to the Netherlands before a home town crowd in Frankfurt.[16] It claimed silver at the 2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship in Toronto, Ontario, Canada,[17] and beat the Netherlands in the 2015 European Championships, to claim its tenth European title.[18] At the 2016 Paralympic Games, it won silver after losing the final to the United States.[19]

Achievements

  • 2010: German Women's National League champion (Hamburg SV) [20]
  • 2010: Silver at the IWBF World Championships (Birmingham, Great Britain) [21][22]
  • 2011: Gold at the European Wheelchair Basketball Championships (Nazareth, Israel) [7]
  • 2012: Gold at the Paralympic Games (London, England) [9]
  • 2013: German Women's National League champion (Hamburg SV) [20]
  • 2013: Silver at the European Championships (Frankfurt, Germany) [16]
  • 2014: Silver at the World Championships (Toronto, Canada) [17]
  • 2015: Gold at the European Championships (Worcester, England) [18]
  • 2016: Silver at the Paralympic Games (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)[19][23]

Awards

  • 2012: Team of the Year [11]
  • 2012: Silver Laurel Leaf [12]

References

  1. ^ "Maya Lindholm". Official site of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 26 May 2013. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  2. ^ "#11 - Maya Lindholm" (in German). BG Baskets Hamburg. Archived from the original on 27 April 2014. Retrieved 31 March 2014.
  3. ^ Ringleben, Franziska (31 August 2012). "Rollstuhlbasketball: "Hebt Euch das Mitleid für unsere Gegner auf!"". Spiegel Online (in German). Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  4. ^ Surzukova, Maria (12 April 2012). "Interview mit Rollstuhl-Basketball Nationalspielerin Maya Lindholm" (in German). BUK Hamburg. Archived from the original on 27 April 2014. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  5. ^ a b "Rollstuhl-Basketball Nationalspielerin Maya Lindholm im Interview". Behindertensport News. 5 April 2012. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  6. ^ "BG Baskets Hamburg". Rollstuhlbasketball Bundesliga. Archived from the original on 31 May 2014. Retrieved 27 April 2014.
  7. ^ a b "Nu Nguyen-Thi darf nicht mit: Holger Glinicki benennt Kader für die Paralympics". Rolling Planet (in German). 12 June 2012. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  8. ^ "No. 22: Germany bucket first gold since 1984". Official site of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. 10 December 2012. Retrieved 3 March 2013.
  9. ^ a b c d "Germany claim women's crown". Official site of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. 7 September 2012. Archived from the original on 30 April 2013. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  10. ^ Mannion, Tim (21 July 2012). "Victory for Rollers and Gliders as London Awaits". Archived from the original on 28 April 2013. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
  11. ^ a b c "Rollstuhlbasketballerinnen sind Mannschaft des Jahres" (in German). HSV-Rollstuhlsport. 26 November 2012. Archived from the original on 27 June 2015. Retrieved 27 June 2015.
  12. ^ a b "Verleihung des Silbernen Lorbeerblattes" (in German). Bundespräsidialamt. 7 November 2012. Archived from the original on 19 November 2018. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  13. ^ "Wissenswertes zur Wahl Sportler des Jahres" (in German). ISK. Archived from the original on 7 January 2014. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  14. ^ "Hamburger SV ist Deutscher Damenmeister 2013" (in German). DRS Fachbereich Rollstuhlbasketball. Archived from the original on 7 April 2014. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
  15. ^ "HSV.de - Hamburgs Sportler des Jahres gesucht" (in German). Hamburger Sport-Verein. Archived from the original on 19 January 2011. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  16. ^ a b "Rollstuhlbasketball-EM: Deutsche Damen nach über einem Jahrzehnt entthront". Rolling Planet (in German). 6 July 2013. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
  17. ^ a b "2014 WWWBC: Germany". Wheelchair Basketball Canada. Archived from the original on 2 February 2015. Retrieved 28 June 2014.
  18. ^ a b "Germany earn 10th women's European Wheelchair Basketball Championship title as hosts Britain win men's gold". Inside the Games. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
  19. ^ a b "USA clinch women's basketball gold". International Paralympic Committee. 16 September 2016. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
  20. ^ a b "Deutsche Meister und Pokalsieger" (in German). DRS Fachbereich Rollstuhlbasketball. Archived from the original on 2 March 2014. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  21. ^ "Germany Women". British Wheelchair Basketball. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  22. ^ "World Championships - Results". International Wheelchair Basketball Federation. Archived from the original on 9 July 2014. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
  23. ^ "Paralympic - Wheelchair Basketball Women Germany". Rio 2016. Archived from the original on 23 September 2016. Retrieved 17 September 2016.