Wheelchair basketball is basketball played by people with varying physical disabilities that disqualify them from playing an able-bodied sport. These include spina bifida, birth defects, cerebral palsy, paralysis due to accident, amputations, and many other disabilities. The International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) is the governing body for this sport. It is recognized by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) as the sole competent authority in wheelchair basketball worldwide. FIBA has recognized IWBF under Article 53 of its General Statutes.
Shelley Chaplin is an Australian 3.5-point player wheelchair basketball player. She participated in the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, where she won a silver medal; in the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, where she won a bronze medal, and the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, where she won a second silver medal, a win she dedicated to her lifelong friend Shannon.
Tristan Malcolm Knowles, OAM is an Australian wheelchair basketball player and won a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics.
Shaun Daryl Norris, OAM is an Australian wheelchair basketball player.
Tige Arthur Simmons, OAM is an Australian wheelchair basketball player who represented Australia in the 2008, 2012 and 2016 Paralympic Games.
Brett Andrew Stibners, OAM is an Australian wheelchair basketball player who won a gold medal at the 2008 Summer Paralympics and the 2010 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship.
Bill Latham is a wheelchair basketball player from Australia. He was a member of the Australian national team that competed at the 2010 and 2014 Wheelchair Basketball World Championships that won gold medals. At the 2012 Summer Paralympics he was part of the Australian men's wheelchair team that won silver. In 2016, he was selected for the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Jannik Blair is a 1 point wheelchair basketball player who has played for the University of Missouri and the National Wheelchair Basketball League Dandenong Rangers. He is a member of the Australia men's national wheelchair basketball team, making his debut in 2009, and was member of the Australian team that won the silver medal at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in wheelchair basketball.
Nick Taylor is a wheelchair basketball player. He competed at the 2008 Summer Paralympics playing for the South Africa men's national wheelchair basketball team. He represented Australia at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in wheelchair basketball, being part of the men's team that won silver.
Patrick Anderson is a Canadian wheelchair basketball player.
Edina Müller is a German 2.5 point wheelchair basketball player and KL1 canoeist. She played for ASV Bonn in the German wheelchair basketball league, and for the national team. As part of the German women's national wheelchair basketball team, she won bronze at the 2006 World Cup in Amsterdam, won three time European champions, a silver medal at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, and a gold medal at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. The team was voted 2008 Team of the Year in disabled sports, and Horst Köhler presented it with Germany's highest sports award, the Silbernes Lorbeerblatt. President Joachim Gauck awarded the team a second Silver Leaf after it won the gold medal at the 2012 Summer Paralympics. Müller was also a two-time U.S. champion (2006-2008) with her college team Illinois Fighting Illini at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and helped ASV Bonn win the European Cup in Valladolid, Spain in 2009. From 2011 to 2014 she played for Hamburger SV.
Cindy Ouellet is a Canadian Paralympic wheelchair basketball player.
John Triscari is an Australian basketball coach. He was the coach of the Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, where the team won a silver medal. He is a long-time coach in the State Basketball League, currently in the position of head coach of the South West Slammers men's team.
Tim Frick is a Canadian wheelchair basketball coach who coached the Canadian women's team to three consecutive Summer Paralympic Games gold medals, in 1992, 1996 and 2000, and four consecutive World Wheelchair Basketball Championship titles, in 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006. He was inducted into the Wheelchair Basketball Canada Hall of Fame in 2012, the Canadian Paralympic Hall of Fame in 2013, Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 2014 and induction into the BC Sports Hall of Fame in 2017.
Simone Kues is a German 1.0 point national wheelchair basketball player who plays in the wheelchair basketball league for Hamburg SV. She joined the national team, and participated in the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, at which the German team came fourth. She won bronze at the World Wheelchair Basketball Championships in Amsterdam in 2006. Her team were won the European championship in 2005, 2007 and 2009. She won a silver medal at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing. The women's national team were voted Team of the Year in disabled sports in 2008, and President Horst Köhler awarded them the Silver Laurel Leaf, Germany's highest German sports award.
The Canada women's national wheelchair basketball team is one of Canada's most successful national sporting teams. It is the only national women's wheelchair basketball team to have won three consecutive gold medals at the Paralympic Games in 1992, 1996 and 2000, and the only one to have won four consecutive World Wheelchair Basketball Championships, in 1994, 1998, 2002 and 2006. In 2014 it won a fifth World Championship.
Laurie Williams is a 2.5 point Anglo-Irish wheelchair basketball player who participated at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, and the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, representing Great Britain.
Wheelchair basketball at the 2016 Summer Paralympics will be held from 8 to 17 September at Carioca Arena 1 and the Rio Olympic Arena in Rio de Janeiro.
Joshua Allison is a 1.0 point wheelchair basketball player from Australia. He played basketball for the Kilsyth Cobras and the Sherbroke Suns before suffering a serious accident in 2011. He began playing wheelchair basketball in 2013, and was selected for the national team in 2014. That year he was part of the team that won the 2014 Incheon World Wheelchair Basketball Championship. In 2016, he represented Australia the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.
The United States men's national wheelchair basketball team began in 1955 when the Pam Am Jets brought wheelchair basketball to Europe at the International Stoke Mandville Games, albeit in the form of netball. Shortly following the Pan Am Jets' dominating performance at the International Stoke Mandville Games, wheelchair netball was switched to wheelchair basketball for all future Games.
