Wheelchair Sports - Rugby

Wheelchair rugby is a team sport for athletes with a disability. Developed in Canada in the late 1970s, it is currently practiced in over twenty countries around the world and is a Paralympic sport.

The sport's original name was murderball; in the United States, it is referred to as quad rugby. All wheelchair rugby players are quadriplegic, with a disability affecting both upper and lower limbs. Wheelchair rugby is a mixed sport, with men and women competing on the same teams.

Wheelchair rugby is played indoors on a hardwood court. The rules include elements of wheelchair basketball, ice hockey, and handball. It is a contact sport, and physical contact between wheelchairs is an integral part of the game.

Wheelchair rugby's roots go back to wheelchair basketball and ice hockey. It was created in 1977 by five Canadian wheelchair athletes in Winnipeg, Manitoba to be a sport for quadriplegics. At that time, wheelchair basketball was the most common team sport for wheelchair users.

Wheelchair Rugby

That sport's physical requirement for players to dribble and shoot baskets relegated quadriplegic athletes, with functional impairments to both their upper and lower limbs, to supporting roles. The new sport — originally called murderball due to its aggressive, full-contact nature — was designed to allow quadriplegic athletes with a wide range of functional ability levels to play integral offensive and defensive roles.

Murderball was introduced to the United States in 1981 by Brad Mikkelsen. With the aid of the University of North Dakota's Disabled Student Services, he formed the first American team, the Wallbangers. The first North American competition was held in 1982. In the late 1980s, the name of the sport outside the United States was officially changed from Murderball to Wheelchair Rugby. In the United States, the sport's name was changed to Quad Rugby.

The first international tournament was held in 1989 in Toronto, Canada, with teams from Canada, the United States and Great Britain. In 1990, Wheelchair Rugby first appeared at the World Wheelchair Games as an exhibition event, and in 1993 the sport was recognised as an official international sport for athletes with a disability by the International Stoke Mandeville Wheelchair Sports Federation (ISMWSF). In the same year, the International Wheelchair Rugby Federation (IWRF) was established as a sports section of ISMWSF to govern the sport.

The first IWRF World Wheelchair Rugby Championships were held in Notwil, Switzerland, in 1995. Wheelchair rugby appeared as a demonstration sport at the 1996 Summer Paralympics in Atlanta, and was granted full medal status at the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney, Australia. There are currently twenty-one active countries in international competition, with several others developing the sport.

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