Sue Hobbs travelled around Australia encouraging women to take up wheelchair basketball, ultimately becoming the captain of the first women’s national wheelchair team in 1989.
South Australia’s Sue Hobbs was the first woman to captain the Australian wheelchair basketball team.
Seeing the enormous potential for countless women in wheelchairs, she travelled around Australia, encouraging women to take up the sport. It was a phenomenal commitment and drive.
She founded and captained the Australian women’s national wheelchair basketball team in 1989. That Australian Gliders team entered their first international tournament in the same year.
But it was at the 1992 Paralympics in Barcelona, where the team stamped itself as a serious force, playing off in the bronze medal game, and finishing fourth.
Basketball Australia decided to instigate the Sue Hobbs Medal for the Australian International Women’s Wheelchair Player of the Year and as a follow-up acknowledgement for her profound contribution, Hobbs was inducted into the Basketball SA and Basketball Australia Halls of Fame both in 2013.
Further to her basketball CV, Hobbs also competed in athletics at the 1980 Paralympic Games in Arnhem, Netherlands. Out of four events, she won silver medals in the 60m 5, 800m 5 and 1,500 m 5 events.
Always a promising athlete in any sport, Hobbs became a paraplegic after suffering extensive injuries from being struck by a car.
In 1999, Hobbs was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. After the symptoms prevented her from doing paid work, she began volunteering for Multiple Sclerosis Society of South Australia and the Northern Territory.
