Date of birth | 18 September 1970 | ||||||||||||
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Place of birth | Mica Creek, BC | ||||||||||||
Height | 6 ft (183 cm) | ||||||||||||
Occupation(s) | full time athlete, former computer technician and machinist | ||||||||||||
Rugby union career | |||||||||||||
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Garett Hickling (born September 18, 1970) [1] is a Canadian wheelchair rugby player. He is on the Canada national wheelchair rugby team and has been voted most valuable player at several World Championships (1995,1998, and 2002). He earned a gold medal from the 2002 World Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden; a silver medal from the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens, Greece, and a bronze medal from 2008 in Beijing, China. [2] He was the Canadian flag-bearer at the opening ceremony for the London 2012 Paralympics. [3] He has competed in every Paralympics that included his sport until his retirement, representing Canada five times. [4]
Hickling broke his neck at age 16 in 1987. He and two friends were hiking an unfamiliar B.C. trail at night when they fell off a cliff; one of the friends died. About five years later, Hickling took up wheelchair rugby. [4]
Kurt Harry Fearnley, is an Australian wheelchair racer, who has won gold medals at the Paralympic Games and crawled the Kokoda Track without a wheelchair. He has a congenital disorder called sacral agenesis which prevented fetal development of certain parts of his lower spine and all of his sacrum. In Paralympic events he is classified in the T54 classification. He focuses on long and middle-distance wheelchair races, and has also won medals in sprint relays. He participated in the 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012 and 2016 Summer Paralympic Games, finishing his Paralympic Games career with thirteen medals. He won a gold and silver medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and was the Australian flag bearer at the closing ceremony.
Bradley John Ness, OAM is an Australian wheelchair basketballer. He won a gold medal at the 2008 Beijing and silver medals at 2004 Athens and 2012 London Paralympics. He was selected as the Australian flag bearer at the Opening Ceremony at the 2016 Rio Paralympics. In December 2023, Ness was appointed the Head Coach of the Rollers - Australia men's national wheelchair basketball team.
Steven Dillon Serio is a wheelchair basketball player. As a co-captain of the USA Men's National Wheelchair Basketball Team, he led the American men to their first Paralympic gold medal since 1988 at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympic Games and defended the gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. He currently plays for the New York Rolling Knicks in the NWBA Championship Division.
World Wheelchair Rugby Championships is an international wheelchair rugby competition contested by the national teams of the members of World Wheelchair Rugby (WWR), the sport's global governing body.
Canada competed at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, United Kingdom, from 29 August to 9 September 2012. A total of 145 athletes were sent by the Canadian Paralympic Committee to compete in 15 sports. The country won 31 medals in total and finished twentieth in the medals table, below the CPC's goal on a top eight finish in total gold medals. The total medals and total golds are the lowest totals for Canada since the 1972 Games.
Ryley Batt, is an Australian wheelchair rugby player. He has won two gold, one silver medal and one bronze medal at six Paralympic Games.
Gregory Stephen Smith, OAM is an Australian Paralympic athlete and wheelchair rugby player who won three gold medals in athletics at the 2000 Summer Paralympics, and a gold medal in wheelchair rugby at the 2012 Summer Paralympics, where he was the flag bearer at the opening ceremony. Since 2018, he has been the Assistant Coach of the Australian Steelers.
Nazim Erdem, is an Australian wheelchair rugby Paralympic gold and silver medalist. He has won two gold and two silver medals at five Paralympics from 2000 to 2016.
Brad Dubberley is an Australian Paralympic wheelchair rugby Head Coach and former athlete. He won a silver medal as an athlete at the 2000 Sydney Games and was the head coach at the 2008 Beijing Games in the mixed wheelchair rugby event. He is the head coach of the Australian Wheelchair Rugby team known as the Australian Steelers.
Joshua Anthony "Josh" Hose, is a wheelchair rugby player. He has won gold medals at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Paralympics and competed at the 2020 Summer Paralympics.
Andrew Harrison, is a wheelchair rugby player. He has won gold medals at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Paralympics. and competed at the 2020 Summer Paralympics.
Christopher Adam Bond is an Australian wheelchair rugby player. He has won gold medals at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Paralympics and a bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
Canada competed at the 1996 Summer Paralympics in Atlanta, United States, from August 16 to 25, 1996. 133 athletes competed in 15 sports. Canada won a total of 69 medals and finished in seventh on the medal table.
Patrick Anderson is a Canadian wheelchair basketball player and a six-time member of Canada's Paralympic Team.
Janet McLachlan is a Canadian 4.5 point wheelchair basketball player who won a bronze medal at the 2010 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship in Birmingham, and gold at the 2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship in Toronto.
The United States competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 September to 18 September 2016. The first places the team qualified were for three athletes in sailing events. They also qualified athletes in archery, goalball, shooting, swimming, and wheelchair basketball.
Peter Genyn is a Paralympian sportsman from Belgium. Initially Genyn competed as a wheelchair rugby player before switching to track and field athletics in 2014 where he competes in category T51 sprint events. In 2016 he became the world record holder in the T51 men's 400 metres sprint.
David Willsie is a Canadian coach and former Wheelchair rugby player.
Charles "Chuck" Aoki is an American wheelchair rugby player who plays for the United States national wheelchair rugby team. He has represented the United States at the Paralympics in 2012, 2016, 2020, and 2024. He is regarded as one of the top 3.0 classified players in the world. He now lives in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan, with his wife, Elizabeth, and their two dogs. Liz is a social worker and therapist who is also disabled; they met at a wheelchair rugby tournament in 2017 and later married in 2022. In addition to his work as an athlete, he sits on several committees within the USOPC and works at the University of Michigan’s Adaptive Sports & Fitness department.
Brianna Hennessy is a Canadian paracanoeist and wheelchair rugby player. She is a multi-medalist at the ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships and won silver in the women's VL2 at the 2024 Summer Paralympics.