Edina Müller

Edina Müller (born 28 June 1983) is a German 2.5 point wheelchair basketball player and KL1 canoeist. She played for ASV Bonn in the German wheelchair basketball league, and for the national team. As part of the German women's national wheelchair basketball team, she won bronze at the 2006 World Cup in Amsterdam, won three time European champions (in 2007, 2009, 2011), a silver medal at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, and a gold medal at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. The team was voted 2008 Team of the Year in disabled sports, and Horst Köhler presented it with Germany's highest sports award, the Silbernes Lorbeerblatt (Silver Laurel Leaf). President Joachim Gauck awarded the team a second Silver Leaf after it won the gold medal at the 2012 Summer Paralympics. Müller was also a two-time U.S. champion (2006-2008) with her college team Illinois Fighting Illini at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and helped ASV Bonn win the European Cup (Willi Brinkmann Cup) in Valladolid, Spain in 2009. From 2011 to 2014 she played for Hamburger SV.

Edina Müller

Edina Müller
Personal information
Nationality	Germany
Born	28 June 1983
Sport
Country	Germany
Sport	Wheelchair basketball Paracanoeing
Disability class	2.5 (wheelchair basketball) KL1 (canoeing)
Event(s)	Women's team
College team	Illinois Fighting Illini
Club	Hamburger SV
Coached by	Martin Otto (wheelchair basketball) Jens Kröger (canoeing)
Achievements and titles
Paralympic finals	2008 Summer Paralympics 2012 Summer Paralympics
Medal record Women's wheelchair basketball Paralympic Games 2012 London Team 2008 Beijing Team World Championships 2010 Birmingham Team 2014 Toronto Team 2006 Amsterdam Team Women's paracanoeing Paralympic Games 2016 Rio de Janeiro KL1 World Championships 2016 Duisburg KL1 2015 Milan KL1 2019 Szeged KL1

Müller retired from wheelchair basketball after the 2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship in Toronto, at which she won silver, and took up canoeing. On 24 May 2015, she won silver in the women's KL1 200 m race at the 2015 ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup in Duisburg. On 19 May 2016, she won gold in the event at the 2016 ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup in Duisburg.

Biography

Edina Müller was born on 28 June 1983,[1] and raised in the Rhineland town of Brühl. In 2000, at the age of 16, she was playing volleyball, and felt pain in her back. A doctor straightened her back, but within two hours she lost feeling in her legs. She was rushed to hospital where a blood clot was discovered. Diagnosed with paraplegia, she spent the next four months in hospital. She had to repeat Year 10 at Max Ernst Gymnasium, but graduated in 2003. Although she began using a wheelchair, she longed to return to playing sport, and initially tried sitting volleyball. She then took up wheelchair tennis, winning the Hungarian Open in 2005, but ultimately switched to wheelchair basketball, playing for ASV Bonn. In 2005, she was invited to attend a German national team training camp by its coach, Holger Glinicki. The following year she made the national team and won bronze at the World Championships in Amsterdam.[2][3]

Müller's mentor and professor at the University of Cologne, Professor Dr Horst Strohkendl, advised her to pursue her sporting career in the United States. She attended a one-week basketball camp in Illinois in 2006, where she was noticed by Michael Frogley, the coach of the Canadian men's national wheelchair basketball team and the Illinois Fighting Illini college team at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.[4][5] In both years they won the National Championship with the team. During the semester break, she travelled with the German women's national team for tournaments and preparation camps. In 2007, the German women became European champions before a home crowd at Wetzlar.[4]

Müller graduated from the University of Illinois in 2008 with a Bachelor of Science degree in kinesiology, and moved back to Germany,[4] where she helped ASV Bonn win the European Cup (Willi Brinkmann Cup) in Valladolid, Spain in 2009.[6] In 2011, she started playing for Hamburger SV.[7] Her American degree was accepted in Germany, and she qualified as a rehabilitation therapist at BG Trauma Hospital in Hamburg-Boberg. She worked with paraplegic patients, helping them become wheelchair mobile, by strengthening the chest and upper arm muscles. "It makes a difference," she says "that the therapist also cannot walk."[7]

In September 2008, Müller participated in the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, but Germany was beaten in the gold medal game by the team the United States, which contained a number of former teammates and opponents from the University of Illinois. The German team took home Paralympic silver medals instead.[2] After the Paralympics, the team's performance was considered impressive enough for it to be named the national "Team of the Year",[8] and it received the Silver Laurel Leaf, Germany's highest sporting honour, from German President Horst Koehler.[4] Brühl honoured her with an entry in its Golden Book.[8]

Müller helped the national team defend their European Championship title with the national team in Stoke Mandeville, England in 2009.[2] They hoped for a rematch against the United States at the 2012 Summer Paralympic Games in London,[2] but instead faced the team that had beaten the Americans, the Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team,[9] which included former Illinois teammates Shelley Chaplin and Bridie Kean.[5] They defeated the Australians in front of a crowd of over 12,000 to win the gold medal,[4][9] They were awarded another Silver Laurel Leaf by President Joachim Gauck in November 2012,[10] and were again named Team of the Year for 2012.[11]

Müller retired from wheelchair basketball after the 2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship in Toronto, at which she won silver.[12] She then took up canoeing, training at the Hamburg Canoe Club. "From basketball", she said "I learned to always have the sight set for a big goal. If something doesn’t turn out how it should, it’s not the end of the world. But it always helps to have a goal set in front of you."[13] According to her coach, Jens Kröger, "It’s easy to motivate her. She’s fighting to reach a training target. She never gives up.”[13] Her hard work paid off. Not only did she earn national team selection, but on 24 May 2105 she won silver in the women's KL1 200 m race at the 2015 ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup in Duisburg in a personal best time of 59.981 seconds, her first time below the one-minute mark.[14][15] On 19 May 2016 at the 2016 ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup in Duisburg, she went one better, winning gold despite capsizing her canoe that morning during warm up.[16][17]

Sydney July 2012

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Achievements

• 2006: Bronze World Championship (Amsterdam, Netherlands)[4]
• 2007: Gold National Championship (Warm Springs, United States)[4]
• 2007: Gold European Championship (Wetzlar, Germany)[18]
• 2008: Gold National Championship (Champaign, United States)[4][5]
• 2008: Silver Paralympics (Beijing, China)[8]
• 2009: Gold European Championship (Stoke Mandeville, Great Britain)[2]
• 2010: Silver World Championships (Birmingham, Great Britain)[19][20]
• 2011: Gold European Championships (Nazareth, Israel)[21]
• 2012: Gold Paralympic Games (London, England)[9]
• 2013: Silver European Championships (Frankfurt, Germany)[22]
• 2014: Silver at the World Championships (Toronto, Canada)[12]
• 2015: Silver at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup (Duisburg, Germany)[15]
• 2016: Gold at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup (Duisburg, Germany)[16][17]

Awards

• 2008: Team of the Year[8]
• 2008: Silver Laurel Leaf[4]
• 2009: Entry in the Golden Book of the city of Brühl[8]
• 2012: Team of the Year[11]
• 2012: Silver Laurel Leaf[10]
• 2013: Hamburg Sportswoman of the Year[23]

Notes

1. "Edina Mueller - Wheelchair Basketball - Paralympic Athlete - London 2012". Official site of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Archived from the original on 26 May 2013. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
2. Joisten, Bernd (20 October 2010). "Edina Müller: "Ich bin ein Mensch, der nach vorn blickt"". General-Anzeiger (in German). Retrieved 5 February 2012.
3. Hoffmann, Elke (15 December 2008). "Vom gesunden Teenager zur Spitzensportlerin im Rollstuhl". Frauen Zimmer (in German). Retrieved 6 February 2013.
4. "Edina Müller: "Herzsprung" beim Einlauf ins Olympiastadion in Peking" (in German). Bundesministerium für Gesundheit. Archived from the original on 17 June 2013. Retrieved 5 February 2013.
5. "Illinois Paralympians Shine" (PDF). College of AHS news. Spring 2009. pp. 6–7. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
6. "Chronology of Events in the Development of Wheelchair Basketball in Europe". International Wheelchair Basketball Federation. Archived from the original on 6 March 2012. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
7. "Botschaft mit goldenem Schimmer". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (in German). 24 December 2012. Retrieved 5 February 2013.
8. "Goldenes Buch: Palavern bei Sekt ist nicht ihr Ding". Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger (in German). 4 February 2009. Retrieved 6 February 2012.
9. "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. "Verleihung des Silbernen Lorbeerblattes" (in German). Bundespräsidialamt. 7 November 2012. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
11. "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. "2014 WWWBC: Germany". Wheelchair Basketball Canada. Archived from the original on 2 February 2015. Retrieved 28 June 2014.
13. "Edina Müller – from wheelchair basketball glory to para-canoe success?". International Paralympic Committee. Retrieved 12 June 2015.
14. "Edina Müller". 25 May 2015. Retrieved 12 June 2015.
15. "IMAS Live Results - 2015 ICF Canoe Sprint World Cup Duisburg". Retrieved 12 June 2015.
16. "Deutsche Kanuten holen Doppel-Gold". Sportschau (in German). 19 May 2016. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
17. "Goldener Glanz unter dem Korb und im Kanu". Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung (in German). 19 May 2016. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
18. "Chronology of Events in the Development of Wheelchair Basketball in Europe". International Wheelchair Basketball Federation Europe. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
19. "Germany Women". British Wheelchair Basketball. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
20. "World Championships - Results". International Wheelchair Basketball Federation. Archived from the original on 9 July 2014. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
21. "Nu Nguyen-Thi darf nicht mit: Holger Glinicki benennt Kader für die Paralympics". Rolling Planet (in German). 12 June 2012. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
22. "Rollstuhlbasketball-EM: Deutsche Damen nach über einem Jahrzehnt entthront". Rolling Planet (in German). 6 July 2013. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
23. "HSV Handball als Mannschaft des Jahres geehrt". Hamburger Abendblatt (in German). 17 February 2014. Retrieved 28 April 2014.