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ELITE WHEELCHAIR RUGBY: PARALYMPICS, PANDEMIC AND POSITIONING Written by: SUE TUCKER, OTD, OTR/L ATP
Wheelchair rugby is a full wheelchair contact sport that has grown in size and visibility since it was originally invented in the late 1970s. Wheelchair rugby became an official Paralympic sport in 2000 with the first Paralympic competition showcasing in Sydney, Australia. The United States of America Wheelchair Rugby (USAWR) team has a strong history of being highly competitive and has medaled in every Paralympic games. In February 2020, USAWR was in full preparation mode for the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, with high hopes of winning a gold medal, attending the King Power Wheelchair Rugby Quad Nations tournament in Leicester, U.K., along with powerhouses Great Britain and Australia. The COVID-19 pandemic halted “normal” life around the world in March 2020 and marked the first time in the history of the Paralympic Games a postponement was issued. The unknowns and rapid spread of COVID-19 placed in-person team training camps and competitions on hold for USAWR for 2020. With in-person team training on hold, USAWR pivoted to virtual video review and coaching sessions. With many fitness centers closed, athletes adjusted to training outdoors while taking advantage of the extra year of training until Paralympic Games would occur. USAWR established a committee to assist with building skills, team chemistry and maximizing performance while transitioning to in-person team training, which resumed in January 2021. Like all Paralympic sports, wheelchair rugby has a classification system, meaning that athletes are assessed by a team of health care professionals to determine the impact of their impairment on activity limitations. The goal of classification is to equalize the playing field and ensure a fair structure for competition. For wheelchair rugby, athletes are classified and given a point value from 0.5 - 3.5 with 0.5 being athletes with the least functional ability. Four athletes are on court at the same time and their point total cannot exceed 8 points with exception of teams with a female athlete, which are allowed 0.5 extra points per female athlete on the court.
The International Paralympic Committee eligibility requirements for wheelchair rugby include: • Athletes with impaired muscle power such as those with spinal cord injury or muscular dystrophy. • Limb deficiency including those occurring congenitally or via trauma or illness related amputations. • Hypertonia such as occurs with cerebral palsy (CP) or traumatic brain injury (TBI). • Ataxia and athetosis such as that occurring with CP, TBI or stroke. • Impaired passive range of movement. Wheelchair rugby has evolved over the past 15 years as more athletes with disabilities other than spinal cord injury, are participating in the sport. Wheelchair rugby athletes’ sports chairs have advanced in their customization, largely due to the range of athletes’ functional abilities and the rise of elite athletes demanding precision fitting and equipment to improve their performance. Many athletes at the elite level in wheelchair rugby rely on teammates, coaches and their own experience when selecting configurations for their new rugby chairs. Fitting an athlete for a rugby chair is quite different than traditional wheelchair evaluations and fittings as the chairs are often extremely specialized for the athlete’s role on court, and the design is much different than a typical wheelchair given the need for fixed welded frames, pickers and/or bumpers to absorb the chair-to-chair contact during play. Sports chairs
FIGURE 1
Class 1.0 athlete Joe Jackson
FIGURE 2
Class 2.0 athlete Ernie Chun
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DIRECTIONS 2021.6
