Heike Friedrich

Heike Friedrich (born 14 June 1976) is a German 4.5 point wheelchair basketball player, who plays for the Mainhatten Skywheelers. She was a professional basketball player who played for TuS Lichterfeld, Wild Cats Aschaffenburg, TV Langen und TV Hofheim. She was with the Bundesliga club TV Langen for five years, and the Germany women's national basketball team for nine years, playing 204 international games. Since taking up wheelchair basketball in 2006, she has played with the German national team which won European titles in 2009 and 2011, and was runner-up in 2013. The team was also runner-up at the IWBF World Championship in Birmingham in 2010, and won a gold medal at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. President Joachim Gauck awarded the team Germany's highest sporting honour, the Silbernes Lorbeerblatt (Silver Laurel Leaf).

Biography

Heike Friedrich was born in Berlin on 14 June 1976. She was a professional basketball player who played for TuS Lichterfeld, Wild Cats Aschaffenburg, TV Langen und TV Hofheim. She was with the Bundesliga club TV Langen for five years, and the Germany women's national basketball team for nine years, playing 204 international games.

Friedrich began playing wheelchair basketball on 2006. In 2007, she joined Team 99 Aschaffenburg. Since 2009, she has played for the Mainhatten Skywheelers in Frankfurt. The German team went on to become silver medallists at the Wheelchair Basketball World Championship in Birmingham in 2010. In the Gold Medal match in London, the team faced the Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team, in front of a capacity crowd of over 12,000 at the North Greenwich Arena.

The German team had been undefeated up to that point, but had 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. They defeated the Australians 44–58 in front of a crowd of over 12,000 at the North Greenwich Arena to win the gold medal, At the 2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship in Toronto, Canada, in June 2014, the team won silver after being defeated by Canada in the final.

Achievements 2009: Gold European Championships (Stoke Mandeville, Great Britain) 2010: Silver World Championships (Birmingham, Great Britain) 2011: Gold at the European Championships (Nazareth, Israel)

Awards 2012: Team of the Year 2012: Silver Laurel Leaf