This summer, thousands of athletes will head to Rio de Janeiro to test themselves against the best in the business.
By the time August’s Olympic Games have finished, competitors from more than 50 different countries will descend upon the Brazilian city to attempt to claim the gold in one of the games’ 526 events.
One such competitor is Chris Ryan, who is captain of the Team GB in wheelchair rugby – or, as it’s also known, murderball.
We caught up with Ryan ahead of the BT National Championships to talk a little bit about the sport and his hopes for September.
Despite qualifying every year since the sport was first introduced to the Paralympic programme back in 2000, Britain have never picked up a wheelchair rugby medal. But this, Ryan believes, could be about to change.
“We’re confident it’s not just going to be as it has been in terms of medals,” Ryan says. “It doesn’t really matter what colour we do, we’re not particularly scared of any team above us. Currently, they’re ranked higher than us but we feel we can beat any on our day. It’s not like there’s any that we feel is out of reach.
“We’re getting closer to these teams every time we take them… It would be the biggest thing we’ve ever done [to earn a medal] and it would make history for our nation.
“There are a few of the guys who know that they’re going to be picked, but there are a few spots up for grabs, I think. It kind of changes every week, you know, however people are playing – it’s a form thing. It’s character-building.”
Back in 2008, Ryan was training to be a professional golfer, but a car accident on the way home from a tournament cut his career short. During his during his rehabilitation from the crash, he was introduced to the world of wheelchair rugby and was inspired by the physicality of it.
“I saw some of the guys who had the same kind of injury as me and I couldn’t believe the shape they were in and what they could do,” he says.
“At first it might have been a rehab thing that was a good fitness drill. And then as soon as you play the game you get hooked and you’re instantly trying to find out how you can get your first rugby chair and just crack on with it. I just haven’t looked back.”
Ryan now competes with an classification within the sport of 2, which puts him in the midrange of physical impairment. He explains:
“Everyone’s given a classification based on their level of impairment. There’s seven different kinds of classification, from 0.5 up to 3.5, in 0.5 increments.
“So 0.5 would be severely disabled… they would struggle to lift their arm up straight and they might not even have triceps. Your four players on court have to add up to a maximum of eight points.”
As the summer begins, Ryan can’t help but be excited about the challenge ahead. After working so hard for so long, he can’t wait for September 14 to come round and the rugby section of the Paralympic Games to begin.
“I’m very excited. It will be my first Paralympics, if I’m selected. We went to visit out there maybe a month ago, and that was amazing to just visit the village… It will just be buzzing when we get there.
“It’s been a three-year slog, us and the Paralympics. It really is the final push. You spend so much time with your team-mates, you do so much together that to experience something good at the end of it will be incredible.”
BT, a long-term supporter of disability sport in the UK, is the Official Principal Partner of GB Wheelchair Rugby. The BT National Championships took place from 23rd – 24th April at the Sheffield EIS Centre and saw 12 of the best clubs teams from the Super Series compete.
