Paris 2024: Wheelchair rugby underway with growing women participation
Sarah Adam became the first woman to compete at a Paralympic Games for wheelchair rugby powerhouse USA 30 Aug 2024
Not one but two women took to the wheelchair rugby court as USA met Japan in the preliminary round group A on day two of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
As a predominantly male Para sport, seeing Sarah Adam of USA and Kae Kurahashi of Japan face each other clearly signals the growing participation of women in the contact sport often colloquially called 'Murderball'. Adam is the first woman in the USA's wheelchair rugby team, while Kurahashi was also the first to represent her country when she competed at Tokyo 2020, helping Japan take bronze at home.
A tight match with Japan clinching the win
Both USA and Japan won their opening match at Paris 2024, but only Japan could make it two out of two, winning 45-42 against USA in a tense game.
Adam is one of the team’s principal ball carriers and was instrumental in USA's score, delivering 9 tries. Chuck Aoki led the board with 19 tries, and Josh Wheeler scored 6 tries.
“The expectation has always been the same, everyone has a role on that court, I’m just trying to do my role, take some of the pressure off of Chuck and Wheeler, but we all work together,” Adam said to the IPC.
Team captain and veteran of the sport Chuck Aoki, who has stated he's hoping for gold after two silvers from Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 and a bronze from London 2012, put the loss down to composure.
“I think Japan was just more composed. They were stronger than us today, they stayed composed," he said.
“I know we can beat them, but we have to execute on nearly 100% level and we just weren’t even close to that today.”
On having the support of Adam, second to him in terms of delivering tries, he only had praise, saying: "It's fantastic, Sarah is a tremendous player who really hasn't been playing at this level that long. To see how far she's come in a short amount of time is really spectacular."
A thumbs up to family if she flips
Adam's family were in the stands at Champ de Mars Arena, a temporary, sustainable timber structure that will be dismantled after the competition.
"They haven’t gotten to see me play a lot of (wheelchair rugby) so looking up and seeing their faces is really encouraging,” Adam said.
Considering it's a full contact sport, it's unsurprising that her family have some nerves while watching her.
“I think they’re starting to get used to it (seeing me play). I think my mum at first was a little hesitant, me going in and getting smashed by guys twice my size. If I flip over I need to give her a little thumbs up," she explained.
“But she wants me to go out and be competitive, she’s probably more competitive than I am honestly.”
Competition within community
Participation of women in the Para sport has been growing more generally, with a record number of female participants at the 2022 World Championship.
Adam spoke to facing Kurahashi on the court, and commented to the balance of competition with community.
“When we’re on the court we’re fierce in competing against each other but off the court there’s a strong community of women in the wheelchair rugby arena and supporting each other to try to grow the sport together,” she said.
At Paris 2024, Australia has an unprecedented three women on its 12-player team, while Denmark and Germany also have female players in addition to USA and Japan. In total the eight women players across all teams doubles the number of women in wheelchair rugby at Tokyo 2020.
