Sarah Adam is poised to break some serious barriers at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. Not only is she set to become the first woman to represent Team USA in wheelchair rugby at a Paralympic Games, she will do it as one of the team’s principal ball carriers. 

With less than 50 days until the Opening Ceremony of the Paris 2024 Paralympics, Adam, who found the sport as a volunteer, explains the role wheelchair rugby has played in her life, describes what it is like to compete in a mixed-gender sport and identifies the people she wants to inspire in Paris.

A true trailblazer 👏

Sarah Adam makes history becoming the first woman to be named to a @usawchrugby Paralympic team.#MTUSA pic.twitter.com/AbauXqcI5N

— Team USA (@TeamUSA) April 30, 2024

How did you discover wheelchair rugby?

I actually started as an able-bodied volunteer. I had always loved sports, played sports my whole life and I was headed down to St Louis for school in occupational therapy. So, I wanted to find a way to combine my love of occupational therapy and my love of sport.

So, I joined a wheelchair rugby team locally in St Louis. Just to go their practises and see what it was about. I fell in love with the strategy and the coaching aspect of the sport and then was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) while I was still in graduate school. 

In 2019 I was finally classified into the sport and I made my first national team in 2021.

What role did wheelchair rugby play following your diagnosis? 

It’s funny, I almost went to school up in the Quad Cities (a cluster of four cities across Iowa and Illinois) where I did my undergraduate, and they do not have adaptive sports. So, I would still have had the diagnosis, but I wouldn’t have had the adaptive community or the people with disabilities that surround me and have helped me formulate my disability identity.

Being an athlete is such a core part of my identity and who I am, and I can’t imagine where I would be if I wasn’t able to reconnect with that through adaptive sport.

Having people who are like-minded, with disabilities around me, pushing me to reconnect with my identity has helped me come to terms with the MS and make it a part of my life, and not my entire life. 

What do you love about wheelchair rugby? 

Wheelchair rugby is a sport that anybody watching can fall in love with via the collision and the contact. But what draws me to it is the strategy.

When you know the sport really intimately, you see that it’s a chess match of how to use players of different functional abilities and different speeds. You have to be thinking three steps ahead.

Obviously, I am a female out there, so I am a little bit smaller than my male counterparts, and I have to be a little bit smart and see the game develop before it’s even happening.

How do people react when you tell them that you will represent Team USA in wheelchair rugby?

For me it is really nice to break down some of the stereotypes. Obviously, as a person with multiple sclerosis I am often told, ‘be careful, don’t stress yourself out, don’t overwork yourself’. But for me, wheelchair rugby, with the high-speed collisions, is a nice way for people to see what my body can do.

Even though I have MS, and yes I have a disability, I am still able to be out there and be really physical and flip over on my chair, get back up and keep going. It’s really an analogy for our life.

What is it like being the only woman in the USA squad and often on the court?

At the very, very beginning there was maybe a bit of hesitancy from the guys out there, but they quickly realised, 'if we don’t stop her, if we don’t treat her like any other player out there, she’s going to make us look silly'. I appreciate that. 

Have you had any injuries on court?

I am about 140 pounds compared to my male counterparts, they are about 180 pounds. I have had my fair share of getting flipped over in the chair. A concussion or two. I have broken a couple of fingers from getting smashed between the chairs. Technically you are not supposed to be hitting the bodies, but you get punched in the face and arms get ripped in all directions. 

Is it hard for your family to watch you play the full-contact sport?

My mum gets a little bit nervous when she sees the guys coming full speed and hitting me and flipping me over. She makes me give her a thumbs-up on TV to let her know I am OK.

What is funny is watching the guys on my team get really protective and defensive about me. Almost like brothers. Someone gets a dirty hit on me and they are going to hit back and make sure you don’t mess with our girl.

What does it mean for you to be a role model? 

Right now, there is so much media attention on women in sport. Hopefully I can be a small part of that conversation, being a female in what is typically considered a male dominated sport.

For me, it is about being an example to other girls that if this is the sport you want to play, you can do it. Could I have played basketball or done track or swimming? Absolutely, but this is what I fell in love with.

I haven’t been around Paralympic sport for long and I am really looking forward to connecting with other female athletes. For me, Tatyana McFadden (eight-time Paralympic track champion) is one of my biggest heroes.

Are you looking forward to potentially being a centre of attention at Paris 2024?

It’s a little nerve-wracking at times. I don’t think I have quite grasped my role and how big a role I will have over there, to advocate for women’s sport and doing something quite unique. I guess I am ready to buckle up and just enjoy the experience and have a little fun with it. 
 

Discover more about wheelchair rugby and the 22 sports in the Paris 2024 Paralympic sports programme 

Book your tickets for the Paralympic Games by visiting the Paris 2024 ticketing website