Marina Mohnen

Marina Mohnen (born 31 October 1978) is a 4.5-point wheelchair basketball player, who plays for Rhine River Rhinos Wiesbaden in Germany, and previously played for the Mainhatten Skywheelers, RBC Köln 99ers, BAD.S. Quartu Sant' Elena und S. Stefano Sport. She also played with the German national team that won the European title in 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011 and 2015 and was runner-up in 2013. It was also runner-up at the IWBF World Championship in Birmingham in 2010 and in Toronto 2014. She won a silver medal at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing and the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio, and a gold medal at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. The team was voted 2008 Team of the Year in disabled sports, and President 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 and at the Summer Paralympics in 2016.

Biography

Marina Mohnen was born in Bitburg on 31 October 1978. She took up wheelchair basketball as a 4.5-point player, playing in Italy from 2009 to 2011, after which she returned to RBC Köln.

Mohnen joined the German national team in 2005. Mohnen beat Olympic gold medallists Britta Heidemann, Marion Rodewald and Oksana Chusovitina, and long-distance runner Sabrina Mockenhaupt, to take the title of Cologne's Sportswoman of the Year for 2008. Mohnen was captain of the team in London. 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, that included Mohnen's mother Kati and sister Sonja. They defeated the Australians 44–58 to win the gold medal, The German team claimed silver at the 2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and beat the Netherlands in the 2015 European Championships, to claim its tenth European title.

Achievements 2005: Gold at European Championships (Villeneuve d'Ascq, France) 2006: Bronze at World Championships (Amsterdam, Netherlands) 2010: Silver at World Championships (Birmingham, Great Britain) 2011: Gold at European Championships (Nazareth, Israel) 2012: Gold at Paralympic Games (London, England) 2015: Gold at the European Championships (Worcester, England) 2016: Silver at the Paralympic Games (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)

Awards 2008: Team of the Year 2008: Silver Laurel Leaf 2012: Team of the Year 2012: Silver Laurel Leaf 2012: Golden Book of the City of Bitburg. 2015: Gold at the European Championships (Worcester, England)