Wheelchair rugby is a good spectator sport for several reasons. One is that the confusing classification system, which leads to 11 gold medals being awarded in an event like the men’s 50-meter freestyle, is less of a factor. Coaches have to add up numbers to have fair teams, but viewers only see “USA vs. Great Britain.”
And if you like your sports a little wilder than the typical foot race, this is the sport for you. There’s a reason they call it Murderball, and there’s a reason Friday Night Lights sought it out as a new competitive outlet for paralyzed quarterback Jason Street. (Awfully convenient that so many U.S. national team players lived so close to Dillon, Texas, wasn’t it?)
The U.S. men are off to a good start, though they might want to work on the interview cliches:
And they are the defending champs, thanks to a late surge against Australia in the final in Beijing:
Unfortunately, even the Paralympic.org “smart player” is light on wheelchair rugby. The link for yesterday’s USA-Britain game goes instead to Brazil-Britain sitting volleyball. On the Paralympic YouTube channel, the link for yesterday’s USA-Britain game goes to Iran-Russia 7-a-side soccer.
Duresport.com 