Amber Merritt
in 2023 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nickname | Bambi | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | Australia England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 17 February 1993 Portsmouth, England | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country | Australia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Wheelchair basketball | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Disability class | 4.5 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Event | Women's team | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Club | Perth Wheelcats | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Amber Merritt (born 17 February 1993) is a 4.5-point wheelchair basketball player who plays forward. She represented Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, where she won a silver medal and at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo.
Born in England, Merritt moved to Australia when she was ten years old. She was originally a swimmer, but was recruited into basketball by the Paralympic Hall of Fame coach Frank Ponta in 2007. She started playing top-level club wheelchair basketball in Australia for the Perth Western Stars in the Women's National Wheelchair Basketball League (WNWBL) in 2008. In 2013, she captained the team, and it to its first WNWBL championship. She was the league's top scorer, and the Most Valuable Player 4 pointer in its All Star Five, in 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Merritt made her debut with the Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team, known as the Gliders, in 2009. She has played for the Gliders in a number of international series including the 2010 U23 World Championship, 2011 U25 World Championship, 2011, 2012 and 2013 Osaka Cups, the 2012 BT Paralympic World Cup, and 2012 Gliders and Rollers World Challenge in Sydney.