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| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||
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| Nationality | Australian | |||||||||||||||||
| Born | 28 August 1993 | |||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||
| Country | Australia | |||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Wheelchair rugby | |||||||||||||||||
| Disability class | 0.5 (rugby) | |||||||||||||||||
| Club | Hunter Wildfires | |||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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James McQuillan (born 28 August 1993) is an Australian wheelchair rugby player and won a bronze medal with the Steelers at the 2024 Paris Paralympics. [1] [2]
He grew up on a farm outside the town of Nanneella. [3] In 2014, aged 20, McQuillan fractured his C5 vertebrae playing Australian rules Football in Albury, New South Wales and left him a C5 complete quadriplegic. [4] In 2018, he completed an accounting degree at Charles Sturt University. In 2023, he was employed in ANZ Bank's Commercial Division. [4]
In 2022, he married his childhood sweetheart Kathryn. [4]
Prior to his football accident, he loved playing football in winter and cricket in summer. [4] He began playing wheelchair rugby in 2021, debuting for the Steelers 11 months later in Denmark. [5] He won the 2022 Wheelchair Rugby World Championship with the Australian Steelers. He has a 0.5 classification in wheelchair rugby, and in 2024 plays for Hunter Wildfires in the National Wheelchair Rugby League. [6] [7]
At the 2024 Summer Paralympics, he was a member of the Steelers that won the bronze medal defeating Great Britain 50–48. [8]
