Holger Glinicki

Holger Glinicki (born 25 October 1952) is a German wheelchair basketball coach, who coached Hamburger SV. He was assistant coach of the German women's national team from 2003 to 2005. He has been coach of the team since 2006, during which time it has won five European championships, a silver medal at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing and a gold medal at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London.

Holger Glinicki

Holger Glinicki at the 2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship in Toronto, June 2014
Personal information
Nationality	Germany
Born	(1952-10-25) 25 October 1952
Sport
Country	Germany
Sport	Wheelchair basketball
Event(s)	Women's team
Club	Hamburger SV BG Baskets Hamburg
Team	Germany national women's wheelchair basketball team
Achievements and titles
Paralympic finals	2008 Summer Paralympics 2012 Summer Paralympics 2016 Summer Paralympics
Medal record Wheelchair basketball Paralympic Games 2012 London Women's Wheelchair basketball 2008 Beijing Women's Wheelchair basketball 2016 Rio de Janeiro Women's Wheelchair basketball World Championship 2010 Birmingham Women's Wheelchair basketball 2014 Toronto, Canada Women's wheelchair basketball 2006 Amsterdam Women's Wheelchair basketball

Biography

Holger Glinicki was born in Hamburg on 25 October 1952.[1] He was paralysed following a motorcycle accident in 1972 that broke his fourth thoracic vertebra. He became involved in disability sports, playing wheelchair basketball for RSC Hamburg, who were the German national champions in 1983, and played a total of 123 international games.[2] He became assistant coach of the German women's national wheelchair basketball team in 2003, and then coach in 2006.[1] The team won five consecutive European championships, in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2009 and 2011, and a silver medal at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing.[1]

The German team started off slow in its games against the United States and China at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, winning these games by slim six-point margins. Marina Mohnen thought that they played their best basketball only in the final minutes of a game.[3] They defeated the Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team at the 2012 Summer Paralympics by 44–58 in front of a crowd of over 12,000 at the North Greenwich Arena to win the gold medal.[4] It was the first gold medal that Germany had won in women's wheelchair basketball at the Paralympics since 1984.[5] They were awarded the Silver Laurel Leaf by President Joachim Gauck in November 2012,[6] and were named Team of the Year for 2012.[5] Glinicki celebrated by plunging off Canary Wharf into London's River Thames.[7] He was named Hamburg's coach of the year for 2012.[8]

Glinicki was philosophical about the win, noting in December 2012 that there were many awards and ceremonies, but that the memory of London was fading over time.[2] He returned to coaching his club team, Hamburger SV (now renamed BG Baskets Hamburg), which included national team members Mareike Adermann and Edina Müller (and Australia's Bridie Kean). It went on to win the national championship for the eighth time in 2013.[9] The national team was not so fortunate, losing the European Championship to the Netherlands by a point, 56–57, before a home town crowd in Frankfurt in July 2013.[10]

In April 2014, Glinicki coached BG Baskets Hamburg to a win in the final of the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation Euro League Challenge Cup, its first International title, with a 62–54 over the Frankfurt Mainhatten Skywheelers. The team also won the Fair Play Award of the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation Europe.[11]

Achievements

• 2003: Gold European Championships (Hamburg, Germany) [1]
• 2005: Gold European Championships (Villeneuve d'Ascq, France) [1]
• 2007: Gold European Championships (Wetzlar, Germany) [1][12]
• 2008: Silver Paralympic Games (Beijing, China) [1]
• 2009: Gold European Championships (Stoke Mandeville, Great Britain) [1][12]
• 2010: Silver World Championships (Birmingham, Great Britain) [13]
• 2011: Gold European Championships (Nazareth, Israel) [14]
• 2012: Gold Paralympic Games (London, Great Britain) [4]
• 2012: Hamburg coach of the year for 2012.[7]
• 2013: Silver European Championships (Frankfurt, Germany) [1][10]
• 2014: Silver at the World Championships (Toronto, Canada) [15]
• 2015: Gold at the European Championships (Worcester, England) [16]
• 2016: Silver at the Paralympic Games (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)[17][18]

Notes

1. "Coach Holger Glinicki" (in German). BG Baskets Hamburg. Archived from the original on 7 April 2014. Retrieved 5 April 2014.
2. Langmaack, Werner (16 December 2012). "Treffsicher auf Rädern". Die Welt (in German). Retrieved 6 April 2014.
3. "No. 22: Germany bucket first gold since 1984". Official site of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. 10 December 2012. Retrieved 3 March 2013.
4. "Germany claim women's crown". Official site of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. 7 September 2012. Archived from the original on 30 April 2013. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
5. "Rollstuhlbasketballerinnen sind Mannschaft des Jahres" (in German). HSV-Rollstuhlsport. 26 November 2012. Archived from the original on 27 June 2015. Retrieved 27 June 2015.
6. "Verleihung des Silbernen Lorbeerblattes" (in German). Bundespräsidialamt. 7 November 2012. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
7. "Paralympics Basketball-Trainer Glinicki geht trotz Goldmedaille baden". Hamburger Abendblatt (in German). 10 September 2012. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
8. Grünberg, Rainer (6 November 2013). "Holger Glinicki ist Hamburgs Trainer des Jahres". Hamburger Abendblatt (in German). Retrieved 6 April 2014.
9. "Hamburger SV ist Deutscher Damenmeister 2013" (in German). DRS Fachbereich Rollstuhlbasketball. Archived from the original on 7 April 2014. Retrieved 30 March 2014.
10. "Rollstuhlbasketball-EM: Deutsche Damen nach über einem Jahrzehnt entthront". Rolling Planet (in German). 6 July 2013. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
11. "BG Baskets Hamburg triumphieren in Badajoz" (in German). BG Baskets Hamburg. Archived from the original on 30 April 2014. Retrieved 30 April 2014.
12. "History IWBF Europe". International Wheelchair basketball Federation. Retrieved 6 April 2014.
13. "53:55 – dem Titel so nah". Outrun (Sportmagazin) (in German). Archived from the original on 29 March 2014. Retrieved 29 March 2014.
14. "Nu Nguyen-Thi darf nicht mit: Holger Glinicki benennt Kader für die Paralympics". Rolling Planet (in German). 12 June 2012. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
15. "2014 WWWBC: Germany". Wheelchair Basketball Canada. Archived from the original on 2 February 2015. Retrieved 28 June 2014.
16. "Germany earn 10th women's European Wheelchair Basketball Championship title as hosts Britain win men's gold". Inside the Games. Retrieved 9 September 2015.
17. "USA clinch women's basketball gold". International Paralympic Committee. 16 September 2016. Retrieved 17 September 2016.
18. "Paralympic - Wheelchair Basketball Women Germany:". Rio 2016. Archived from the original on 23 September 2016. Retrieved 17 September 2016.