Ella Sabljak

Started: She briefly tried wheelchair racing before taking up wheelchair basketball at age 15 at a sports club in Geelong, VIC, Australia. After winning silver in 3x3 wheelchair basketball at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England, she transitioned to wheelchair rugby. (minervanetwork.com.au, 01 Jan 2023; espn.com.au, 16 Jun 2021) Reason: She took up wheelchair rugby after being approached to try the sport. "I would say I'm very crazy for doing this. Wheelchair rugby had been asking me to come play for a while, and then I kind of played a tournament on the Gold Coast [QLD, Australia] and thought this is actually really fun. So I gave it a go, I gave it a chance, and I felt incredibly valued in the team, and the culture of the [Australian] wheelchair rugby team made me want to know more. So I jumped on in and I went away with them to Italy and Denmark where I played my first international game of rugby. I was still learning [the rules] on the fly, and it was an awesome experience." (abbieherway.podbean.com, 01 Jan 2023) Ambition: To compete at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. (bond.edu.au, 02 Mar 2023) Awards: She was named Most Valuable Player [MVP] in the Australian Women's National Wheelchair Basketball League in 2014. (australia.basketball, 01 Aug 2018) Additional Info: WHEELCHAIR BASKETBALL She represented Australia in wheelchair basketball before she got involved in wheelchair rugby. "My whole family were sporty and into taekwondo but because I can't run, it was hard for me to keep up. So my family decided to get me into wheelchair racing, I didn't enjoy that but it prompted me to try wheelchair basketball. I was playing locally until I needed to take my game to something more competitive. Then I started driving myself to the other side of town to be with other state players, training with the men and the Victorian women's team. Then, from there, gradually I got better and better. But there still weren't that many opportunities for me to really play. The Queensland women's team approached me and were like, 'Would you like to play for us? We're really struggling for numbers'. It meant I was going to play 40 minutes a game, be thrown in the deep end. So I moved up there, transferred university and never looked back." (minervanetwork.com.au, 01 Jan 2023; espn.com.au, 16 Jun 2021; couriermail.com.au, 21 Jul 2018) OTHER ACTIVITIES In 2023 she became a member of the Sport Integrity Australia Athlete Advisory Group. In 2022 she was elected onto the World Anti-Doping Agency [WADA] Athlete Council. She has also been part of the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation [IWBF] Players' Commission. (iwbf.org, 23 Jan 2024, 17 May 2020; wada-ama.org, 2024; Sport Integrity Matters, 29 Dec 2023; sportintegrity.gov.au, 28 Jun 2023; minervanetwork.com.au, 01 Jan 2023; paralympic.org.au, 13 Sep 2022; rollt-magazin.de, 08 Nov 2020) OCCUPATION She has worked as a classroom teacher and as education manager for Paralympics Australia. (LinkedIn profile, 26 Mar 2024)