A Paralympic Debut for St Mark's Old Scholar

It is with great delight that we share that we were wrong to say we had three past students who were Olympians - we, do, in fact, have four! Natalie Alexander (Class of 2008) is making her Olympic debut representing Australia in the Tokyo Paralympics, in the sport of Wheelchair Basketball.

While at St Mark's, Natalie was in Moyes House, and was very active in the life of the School, earning the Citizenship Prize at the 2007 Speech Night Awards. She took on the role of Prefect in her final year at St Mark's, co-chairing the Student Council. Her community commitment was further recognised by her achieving Full Colours for Community Service in 2008, and being awarded the Long Tan Leadership Award at Speech Night in the same year.

After graduating from St Mark's, Natalie earned her Bachelor of Science and Psychology at the University of Western Australia, and is now looking at building a career in speech pathology.

Although she makes her Paralympic debut this year, she has represented Australia internationally since 2011, winning the silver medal at 2011 and 2015 U25 World Championship. She was awarded a bronze medal at the 2016 Osaka Cup, to follow up from a gold medal in 2013.

Natalie had success at junior levels which the guard translated into second place finishes in the 2008 and 2009 WNWBL seasons while also winning a silver medal at the 2009 Australian Paralympic Youth Games.

The Australian Wheelchair Basketball Team, known as the Glider, have played two games so far in Tokyo, and while unsuccessful in those match-ups, there is plenty of basketball to come. And now that we know we have another St Mark's Olympian (and our first Paralympian), there will be more than 2,000 Old Scholars and 1,700+ current St Mark's students cheering Natalie, (and the Gliders) on!