Meica Horsburgh

Horsburg at the 2012 London Paralympics

Horsburg was born in Wynnum North, Queensland, on 24 February 1989.[2][3][4][5] She has a visual disability,[6] with partial sight.[7] She attended Cavendish Road State High School,[7][8] and played in a goalball demonstration game there in 2004.[7] Other sports she participates in include skiing.[2] In 2005, she lived in Birkdale, Queensland,[7] but was living in Wellington Point again by 2011.[2] In 2011, she worked at Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital as an administrator.[2][3] She is married to Australian goalball player Jon Horsburgh.[9]

Horsburg at the 2012 London Paralympics

Horsburg is a goalball player,[2] and is classified as a B3 competitor.[2] She started playing the sport in 2004, when she was 15 years old.[2][10] In 2005, she played in the New Zealand Goalball Nationals for the Queensland women's goalball team.[7]

Horsburg made her national team debut in 2004, the same year she started playing the sport, when she played in a game against Sweden women's national goalball team in Malmo, Sweden,[7][8][10][11][12] as part of a ten team Malmo Women's International Cup that included seven teams that had qualified for the 2004 Summer Paralympics.[11] She was coached in the competition by Robyn Stephens.[11]

In late 2004, she had a goal of making the Paralympic team for the 2008 Summer Paralympics,[7] but the Australian team did not qualify.[13][14] She was named the national team captain in 2010.[3][10] In her role as captain, she plays the song "The Final Countdown" before competitions.[2] Going into the 2010 Goalball World Championships with the national team not having played a match in three years, her team finished eighth.[2][15]

She was the national team captain again in 2011,[2][10][16] and was with the team during the 2011 IBSA Africa Oceania Goalball Regional Champions, which served as the Paralympic qualifying tournament.[10][17] In her first game against New Zealand, her team won 11-4 after leading 7–1 at the half. She scored seven goals in the team's victory.[18][19] She also played in the final match against New Zealand women's national goalball team.[20][10][17] Australia won the game against New Zealand by a score of 6–2,[16][21][22][23] Horsburg scored three goals,[20] the second one from a penalty shot.[21] She finished the competition as the fifth highest scorer,[2] and her team finished sixth overall.[2][13][24]

Horsburg was named to the Aussie Belles team going to the 2012 Summer Paralympics.[4][5][6][13] She was the team's longest serving member going into the Games,[12] and the team's captain.[6][10][13] 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,[13] and an Australian team had not participated since the 2000 Summer Paralympics, when they earned an automatic selection as hosts, and the team finished last in the competition.[13][14] The country has not medalled in the event since 1976.[25] Going into the Paralympics, her team was ranked eighth in the world.[4] 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.[26] She scored three goals.[27][28]

The Belles originally failed to qualify for the 2016 Paralympics after finishing third at the IBSA Goalball Asia Pacific Championships in Hangzhou, China.[29] They were displaced to allow for an African team, Algeria as it turned out, to compete in goalball for the first time.[30] 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.[31] 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.[30]