Natalie Schneider

Started: She began playing wheelchair basketball at age 22 in Lincoln, NE, United States of America. (Athlete, 02 May 2016) Reason: Her father was a basketball coach and she would regularly attend his games despite the fact she did not enjoy watching the sport. After acquiring her impairment, she started playing sitting volleyball, and some of her teammates in that sport introduced her to wheelchair basketball. "I found out about sitting volleyball in Ohama, Nebraska, and started playing that. Some of my teammates asked if I liked basketball and I found out that I qualified to play." (teamusa.com, 23 Nov 2023; National Wheelchair Basketball Association YouTube channel, 22 Aug 2016; lmef.org, 29 Jan 2010) Ambition: To compete at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris. (teamusa.com, 23 Nov 2023) Awards: In 2023 she was named Team Sportswoman of the Year by the Women's Sports Foundation. (teamusa.com, 23 Nov 2023; womenssportsfoundation.org, 13 Oct 2023) Additional Info: RETIREMENTS AND COMEBACKS She has retired twice in the past, quitting the sport to focus on her family before making a comeback each time. She has three children and previously struggled to balance her career and home life but has since found ways of combining the two. "It's a switch on, switch off for me, thinking about the kids and then coming back to basketball. It's like I live in two separate worlds and have two separate personalities almost. With the kids, they just take up so much of your attention that you're on mum mode all the time, and then I come here [to the US Olympic and Paralympic Training Center] and then I get to be Natalie the basketball player while I'm here and that's great." (teamusa.org, 23 Nov 2023, 21 Aug 2019) FURTHER EDUCATION She has a master's degree in statistics from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the United States of America. (womenssportsfoundation.org, 13 Oct 2023)

Sporting Relatives: Her father Dennis has coached high school and college basketball in the United States of America. (lmef.org, 29 Jan 2010)