Wheelchair basketball
Date of Birth | 1 December 1998 |
Age | 26 |
Place of Birth | The Republic of China |
Commonwealth Appearances |
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Social |
It only took Joy Haizelden two years to become an international wheelchair basketball star but she waited eight more years to win Commonwealth Games bronze.
The 25-year-old was part of the women's wheelchair basketball team to reach the podium at Birmingham 2022 as the sport made its debut at the Games.
Haizelden was invited along to a friend's wheelchair basketball club aged 13 in pursuit of keeping fit and at 15 became the youngest player chosen to represent Great Britain at the 2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championships in Toronto.
The athlete was born with spina bifida and was abandoned outside of an orphanage in China along with her sister, before being adopted and given a new life in Southampton.
She has gone on to win various international medals, including a silver at the 2018 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championships in Germany.
At the 2016 Rio Paralympics, Haizelden helped her team to a best-ever fourth place after losing out to the Netherlands in the bronze medal match.