HAMER Judith

Wheelchair Basketball

Date of Birth: 3 Dec 1990

Age: 30

Gender: Female

Sport Class: 4.0

Place of birth: PLYMOUTH

Birth Country:

Great Britain

Place of residence : EXETER

Residence Country:

Great Britain

Events and Medals
Records
Schedule
Bio
General Interest
Milestones

Events and Medals

Discipline	Event	Rank	Medal
Wheelchair Basketball	Women GBR Great Britain	7

Schedule

Start Time	Location	Event	Status
	Musashino Forest Sport Plaza	Women's Preliminary Round Group A #03 GBR Great Britain 54 CAN Canada 73	Finished
	Musashino Forest Sport Plaza	Women's Preliminary Round Group A #07 JPN Japan 54 GBR Great Britain 48	Finished
	Musashino Forest Sport Plaza	Women's Preliminary Round Group A #24 GBR Great Britain 35 GER Germany 53	Finished
	Ariake Arena	Women's Preliminary Round Group A #35 AUS Australia 38 GBR Great Britain 75	Finished
	Ariake Arena	Women's Quarterfinal #55 CHN China 47 GBR Great Britain 33	Finished
	Ariake Arena	Women's Classification Playoff 7/8 #62 ESP Spain 43 GBR Great Britain 62	Finished

Biographical Information

Highlights

Rank	Event	Year	Location
Paralympic Games
4	Women	2016	Rio de Janeiro, BRA
7	Women	2012	London, GBR
World Championships
2	Women	2018	Hamburg, GER
5	Women	2014	Toronto, ON, CAN
6	Women	2010	Birmingham, GBR
European Championships
2	Women	2019	Rotterdam, NED
3	Women	2017	Tenerife, ESP

Walking her dogs. (rollt-magazin.de, 25 Oct 2019)

Occupation:

Biochemistry - University of Worcester, Great Britain

Partner Lauren Rowles

Languages spoken:

Simon Fisher [national], GBR

Sporting relatives:

Her partner Lauren Rowles represents Great Britain in Para rowing and won gold at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. (Instagram profile, 19 Apr 2021; Lauren Rowles Instagram profile, 11 Apr 2021)

2009 for Great Britain, World Cup in Manchester, Great Britain (Athlete, 20 Jul 2016)

She began the sport at age 16 in Exeter, England. (Athlete, 20 Jul 2016; express.co.uk, 27 Aug 2012)

She first tried wheelchair basketball through her local school, and attended a UK Sport talent day where she was picked up by the Great Britain team. She enjoyed the sport from when she first started due to it being fast paced and aggressive. "There was a girl at my school who played little basketball for a local club and I wanted to give it a go. My physical education teacher just took me along one day and I loved it. It was that kind of element of freedom that I'd not had from PE and stuff at school. It was being in my chair and it was going as fast as I could and nobody cared about my leg or if I was going to hurt myself or any of those things." (Athlete, 20 Jul 2016; express.co.uk, 27 Aug 2012; sportingchampions.org.uk, 05 Aug 2016; iampossiblefoundation.co.uk, 02 Apr 2021)

To compete at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo. (southwalesargus.co.uk, 30 Jun 2019)

British wheelchair basketball player Clare Griffiths. (Athlete, 20 Jul 2016)

Philosophy:

"To treat basketball as an escape from real life." (rollt-magazin.de, 25 Oct 2019)

General Interest

Type of Impairment
Limb deficiency (Athlete, 20 Jul 2016)

Origin of Impairment
Congenital (Athlete, 20 Jul 2016)

Impairment Details
She was born with proximal focal femoral deficiency, a short thigh bone in her right leg. She had 18 operations over 13 years to try and lengthen her leg. The process was unsuccessful and her right leg was amputated below the knee. (Athlete, 20 Jul 2016; rollt-magazin.de, 25 Oct 2019; southwalesargus.co.uk, 30 Jun 2019; express.co.uk, 27 Aug 2012)

General
OVERCOMING DEPRESSION
She studied at the University of Alabama in the United States of America until, in 2014, she was forced to return to Great Britain after discovering a bone infection that had been present for around 10 years. She moved to the University of Worcester in England but struggled to cope with the change and was diagnosed with anxiety and depression in 2015. "By the time we got to Rio I would have rather been anywhere else in the world than at the Paralympic Games, which I just hate. When I look back on it, it just makes me really sad that that's kind of how I felt about the Paralympics. It should be the pinnacle of your career and I didn't want to be there. I hated it. That's the hardest thing I've been through. I look back on video and I don't remember big parts of it because I was so depressed. I was really low for a long time. Before Rio, deep down I was suicidal or didn't want to do any of it anymore. [That] doesn't mean I was planning anything necessarily. I was just tired of being busy all the time and couldn't cope with the amount of pressure on me. The thing that saved me was to move away. I moved to Italy and played basketball out there for a year. All I had to worry about was basketball. I could just play basketball and I think that really helped me re-evaluate and get myself back on track and remember what was really important to me and what makes me happy." (iampossiblefoundation.co.uk, 02 Apr 2021)

FURTHER EDUCATION
She has completed an undergraduate degree in biochemistry at the University of Worcester and a master's degree in pharmacology and biotechnology at Sheffield Hallam University. She has also studied at the University of Alabama in the United States of America. (Athlete, 20 Jul 2016; Instagram profile, 11 Feb 2020; iampossiblefoundation.co.uk, 02 Apr 2021)

Social Media

Legend

:: Gold Medal Event
:: Silver Medal Event
:: Bronze Medal Event

Timing and scoring provided by OMEGA. Results powered by Atos