Star

Caitlin takes the fast lane

By Nicole Precel

14th July 2009 11:05:32 AM

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Wheely good … Caitlin Fitzpatrick has been a success in women’s wheelchair basketball. 33157 Picture: EMILY LANE

CRAIGIEBURN’S Caitlin Fitzpatrick gets a fair amount of bumps, scratches and bruises from her sport.

She’s been playing wheelchair basketball for over three years and says she’s had broken fingers from getting them stuck in her chair or someone else’s while she’s pushing down the court.

“You fall out of your chair once or twice during your game - I have been known to do that,” she said.

“I’ve had shoulder injuries, elbows, knocks to the head. It can be painful.”

But it’s something she has become used to as she readies herself for the first Australian Paralympic Youth Games in Melbourne.

She’ll be playing with the youth wheelchair basketball team, but has also been playing and training with the Victorian women’s team, the Dandenong Rangers.

“I couldn’t imagine my life without wheelchair basketball, really,” she said.

“It’s just normal and, yeah, I just love it.”

Ms Fitzpatrick, 19, was born with spina bifida, a developmental birth defect affecting the spine.

Members of her team vary in age and she encourages more girls to get involved in wheelchair basketball.

“Some are people that have had accidents, disabilities, genetic disabilities, a very wide range of things,” she said.

She trains three times a week and dreams that one day she’ll be playing in the Paralympic Games with the Australian wheelchair basketball team.

“It’s something I want to do. I hope I’ll get there one day. I’m trying,” she said.