Shelley Chaplin

Shelley Matheson (née Chaplin) (born 4 September 1984) is an Australian 3.5-point player wheelchair basketball player. She participated in the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, where she won a silver medal; in the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, where she won a bronze medal, and the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, where she won a second silver medal, a win she dedicated to her lifelong friend Shannon.

Chaplin began playing wheelchair basketball in 1999, after initially contemplating developing her archery skills, and made her debut in the Women's National Wheelchair Basketball League (WNWBL) in 2000. She was part of the WNWBL championship Dandenong Rangers sides in 2011 and 2012. She was first selected for the Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team, known as the Gliders, in 2001, and first represented Australia in 2002, winning a bronze medal as part of the team at the 2002 World Wheelchair Basketball Championship. She played for the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign wheelchair basketball team, and was named an All-American in the 2006/07 season. Her team won the national championships in 2009.

Personal life

A Gliders guernsey that Chaplin wore at the 2008 Paralympics on display at the Australian Institute of Sport. It is signed by her teammates. Nicknamed Chappers, with incomplete paraplegia. She grew up in Bendigo, and went to Girton Grammar School. In 2010, she graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with a Bachelor of Science degree in Recreation, Sport and Tourism.

Chaplin is married Kieran Matheson and they have two children.

Basketball A 3.5-point player, Chaplin began playing wheelchair basketball in 1999.

Club Chaplin made her debut in the Women's National Wheelchair Basketball League (WNWBL) in 2000 when she played for the Whittlesea Pacers. and in 2012 was the captain of the Victoria Dandenong Rangers. Her team qualified for the league finals, where she scored 16 points in the game against the Stacks Goudkamp Bears for her team to walk away as champions by a score of 77–54. That season, she was named the league's Most Valuable 3 Point Player and a member of the 2012 All Star Five.

University Chaplin played for the University of Illinois Wheelchair Basketball team in the country's first division. In 2006/07, she was coached by Mike Frogley, Early in the 2006/07 season, her wheelchair broke and she had to play in one that was not hers. After three games played in the borrowed chair, she had bloody and bruised knees. She was named an All-American in the 2006/07 season.

In two games that Chaplin's team won against RIC Express and the University of Alabama in December 2006, she scored 35 total points, made 13 rebounds and 7 assists. She was named the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the series. Her team finished that series with a record of 10–0. In a January 2009 game against 7th ranked Alabama that her team won 52–47, she scored 22 points. The game was part of a tournament where her team also defeated Oklahoma State University 53–49, and the University of Missouri, 48–27. That season, her team won the national championships after defeating the Phoenix Mercury 53–36 in the championship game. That year, she was a junior and played point guard for the team. Her team played against a number of men's teams during that season. In January 2008, the team lost three games to men's teams, including a 61–41 loss to Southwest Minnesota State where she scored 14 points, a 54–35 loss to Edinboro where she scored 10 points in a 74–20 loss to Wisconsin-Whitewater.

Chaplin was part of the Gliders team at the 2010 IWBF World Championships where her team came fourth, In February 2013, she was captain of the Gliders at the Osaka Cup, where the Gliders successfully defended the title they had won in 2012. Chaplin was named MVP of the tournament.

After five years absence and the birth of two children, Matheson was selected to play for the Gliders in qualification tournaments for the 2024 Paris Paralympics. Great Britain, and the Netherlands, but lost to the Canada. This was enough to advance the Gliders to the quarter-finals, where they beat Mexico. The Gliders then defeated the United States by a point to set up a final clash with Germany. In the gold medal game, the Gliders lost 44–58, and earned a silver medal. She scored 8 points in the game, in which she played 26:58 minutes.

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