Tyan Taylor

Tyan "Little Girl" Taylor (born 23 March 1990) is an Australian goalball winger and is classified as a B3 competitor. In 2009, after only a month playing the sport, Taylor was named to the New South Wales team. She made the national team in 2011 and has played in the 2010 World Championships, 2011 IBSA Goalball World Cup and 2011 IBSA Africa Oceania Goalball Regional Champions. She represented Australia at the 2016 Summer Paralympics and 2020 Summer Paralympics in goalball.

Personal life Nicknamed "Little Girl" because of her size, Taylor was born on 23 March 1990 in Mount Kuring-gai, New South Wales. She is classified as a B3 competitor,

When Taylor was ten years old, several years before started the sport, her grandmother made a comment to her after having seen the game that Taylor could play and one day make the Paralympics.

Taylor made her national team debut in 2010 at the World Championships in Britain. She competed in the 2011 IBSA Africa Oceania Goalball Regional Champions that were hosted in Turkey, which served as the Paralympic qualifying tournament. In her first game against New Zealand, her team won 11-4 after leading 7–1 at the half time break. She scored one goal in the team's victory. Australia won the final game against New Zealand by a score of 6–2. She played in the game against New Zealand women's national goalball team with Taylor scoring a pair of goals in the game.

Taylor was named to the Aussie Belles that was going to the 2012 Summer Paralympics. That the team qualified for the Games came as a surprise, as the Australian Paralympic Committee had been working on player development with an idea of the team qualifying for the 2016 Summer Paralympics, Going into the Paralympics, her team was ranked eighth in the world. Taylor debuted the national team's Paralympic uniform on 1 May 2012 at the Sydney Overseas Passenger Terminal on day two of the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia Spring/Summer 2012/13. In the 2012 Summer Paralympics tournament, the Belles played games against Japan, Canada, the United States and Sweden. They lost every game, and did not advance to the finals.

The Belles originally failed to qualify for the 2016 Paralympics after finishing third at the IBSA Goalball Asia Pacific Championships in Hangzhou, China. They were displaced to allow for an African team, Algeria as it turned out, to compete in goalball for the first time. But following the re-allocation of Russia's spot, the Belles found themselves getting a last minute invite to Rio. They entered the tournament ranked ninth in the world. They performed better this time, fighting Uzbekistan to a draw, but they needed a win or draw in their final game against Canada to progress to the quarter finals, but lost 6–0, ending their second Paralympic campaign.