 2012 Australian Paralympic team portrait of Christensen | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Meica Jayne Horsburgh |
| Nationality | Australian |
| Born | Meica Jayne Christensen (1989-02-24)24 February 1989 (age 36) |
| Sport | |
| Country | Australia |
| Sport | Goalball |
| Achievements and titles | |
| Paralympic finals | 2012 |
Meica Jayne Horsburgh (néeChristensen; born 24 February 1989) is an Australiangoalball player. She began playing the sport in 2004, the same year she made her national team debut. After the national team took a three-year break, she was named the captain in 2010 and played in theGoalball World Championships. She represented Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics and was at the2016 Summer Paralympics and2020 Summer Paralympics.[1][2]
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Horsburgh was born inWynnum North, Queensland, on 24 February 1989.[3][4][5][6]She has a visual disability,[7] with partial sight.[8] She attendedCavendish Road State High School,[8][9] and played in agoalball demonstration game there in 2004.[8] Other sports she participates in include skiing.[3] In 2005, she lived inBirkdale, Queensland,[8] but was living in Wellington Point again by 2011.[3] In 2011, she worked atRoyal Brisbane and Women's Hospital as an administrator.[3][4] She is married to Australian goalball playerJon Horsburgh.[10]
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Horsburgh is a goalball player,[3] and is classified as aB3 competitor.[3] She started playing the sport in 2004, when she was 15-years-old.[3][11] In 2005, she played in the New Zealand Goalball Nationals for the Queensland women's goalball team.[8]
Horsburgh made her national team debut in 2004, the same year she started playing the sport, when she played in a game againstSweden women's national goalball team inMalmö, Sweden,[8][9][11][12][13] as part of a ten-team Malmö Women's International Cup that included seven teams that had qualified for the2004 Summer Paralympics.[12] She was coached in the competition byRobyn Stephens.[12]
In late 2004, she had a goal of making the Paralympic team for the2008 Summer Paralympics,[8] but the Australian team did not qualify.[14][15] She was named the national team captain in 2010.[4][11] In her role as captain, she plays the song "The Final Countdown" before competitions.[3] Going into the 2010 Goalball World Championships with the national team not having played a match in three years, her team finished eighth.[3][16]
She was the national team captain again in 2011,[3][11][17] and was with the team during the 2011IBSA Africa Oceania Goalball Regional Champions, which served as the Paralympic qualifying tournament.[11][18] 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.[19][20] She also played in the final match against New Zealand women's national goalball team.[21][11][18] Australia won the game against New Zealand by a score of 6–2,[17][22][23][24] Horsburgh scored three goals,[21] the second one from a penalty shot.[22] She finished the competition as the fifth highest scorer,[3] and her team finished sixth overall.[3][14][25]
Horsburgh was named to theAussie Belles team going to the2012 Summer Paralympics.[5][6][7][14] She was the team's longest serving member going into the Games,[13] and the team's captain.[7][11][14] That the team qualified for the Games came as a surprise, as theAustralian Paralympic Committee had been working on player development with an idea of the team qualifying for the2016 Summer Paralympics,[14] and an Australian team had not participated since the2000 Summer Paralympics, when they earned an automatic selection as hosts, and the team finished last in the competition.[14][15] The country has not medalled in the event since1976.[26] Going into the Paralympic Games, her team was ranked eighth in the world.[5] In the 2012 Summer Paralympics tournament, the Belles played games againstJapan,Canada, theUnited States andSweden. They lost every game, and did not advance to the finals.[27] She scored three goals.[28][29]
The Belles originally failed to qualify for the2016 Paralympic Games after finishing third at the IBSA Goalball Asia Pacific Championships inHangzhou,China.[30] They were displaced to allow for an African team,Algeria as it turned out, to compete in goalball for the first time.[31] But following the re-allocation ofRussia's spot, the Belles found themselves getting a last-minute invite to Rio de Janeiro. They entered the tournament ranked ninth in the world.[32] They performed better this time, fighting Uzbekistan to a draw, but they needed a win or draw in their final game againstCanada to progress to the quarter finals, but lost 6–0, ending their second Paralympic campaign.[31]
At the2020 Summer Paralympics, Horsburgh and the other members of the Belles team comprisingRaissa Martin,Jennifer Blow,Amy Ridley,Brodie Smith, andTyan Taylor wontwo group stage games out of four and qualified for the quarterfinals. The team lost to Turkey 10-6 and failed to win a medal. Horsburgh was the leading goal scorer, scoring in every game she played, except for the loss to China where Australia were beaten 6–0.[33]
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