| Wheelchair basketball at the X Paralympic Games | ||||||||||
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 Paralympic Wheelchair Basketball | ||||||||||
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Wheelchair basketball at the 1996 Summer Paralympics consisted of men's and women's team events.
| Wheelchair basketball at the X Paralympic Games | ||||||||||
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| Paralympic Wheelchair Basketball | ||||||||||
| Medalists | ||||||||||
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Wheelchair basketball at the 1996 Summer Paralympics consisted of men's and women's team events.
Source: Paralympic.org [1]
The 1996 Paralympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia, United States were held from August 16 to 25. It was the first Paralympics to get mass media sponsorship, and had a budget of USD $81 million.
Randy Snow was the first Paralympian to be inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame. A native of Terrell, Texas, Snow was a state-ranked tennis player as a teenager, but at the age of 16, his spine was crushed by a 1000-pound bale of hay, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. After graduating, he enrolled in the University of Texas at Austin in 1977, where he indulged in the fraternity party life, until forming a wheelchair basketball team under the direction of Jim Hayes, the University of Texas at Arlington wheelchair sports director. Soon afterwards, he began wheelchair racing, and in 1980 transferred to Arlington in order to work with Hayes, eventually establishing himself as the best wheelchair tennis player in the United States.
Satoshi Saida is a Japanese pioneering wheelchair tennis player and 2004 Summer Paralympics gold medalist.
Nicholas Hugh "Nick" Morris, OAM is an Australian wheelchair basketball player. He was born in the Victorian town of Wangaratta. He was a member of the Australian team that won gold at the 1996 Summer Paralympics in Atlanta, for which he received a Medal of the Order of Australia. He was also a member of the Australian wheelchair basketball squad at the 2000 Summer Paralympics. Morris was injured in a motorcycle accident at age 16 and credits his involvement in sport as the key to his rehabilitation.
The Australia men's national wheelchair basketball team is the men's wheelchair basketball side that represents Australia in international competitions. The team is known as the Rollers. Australia took the gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Paralympic Games and 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games.
The 1996 Summer Paralympics were held in the United States city of Atlanta. Australia competed in 13 of the 17 sports, winning medals in 10 of those sports. At the 1996 Summer Paralympics, Australia had the second highest medal tally of any country competing. It won 42 gold, 37 silver and 27 bronze medals. It surpassed the 24 gold medals that Australia won at the 1992 Paralympics. The sports of athletics, swimming and cycling provided Australia with the majority of its medals.
The Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team is the women's wheelchair basketball side that represents Australia in international competitions. The team is known as the Gliders. The team hasn't won a gold medal for Australia since it began competing at the 1992 Summer Paralympics, however it has won either the silver or bronze medal since the 2000 Summer Paralympics held in Sydney. Gliders finished 6th at the 2014 Women's World Wheelchair Basketball Championship but did not qualify for the 2016 Summer Paralympics.
David Thomas Selby, OAM is an Australian wheelchair basketball player. He was born in Sydney, New South Wales. He was part of the gold medal winning Australia men's national wheelchair basketball team at the 1996 Summer Paralympics, for which he received a Medal of the Order of Australia. He was also part of the silver medal winning Australia men's national wheelchair basketball team at the 2004 Summer Paralympics.
Julianne Adams is an Australian wheelchair basketball player.
Amanda Carter is an Australian Paralympic wheelchair basketball player. Diagnosed with transverse myelitis at the age of 24, she began playing wheelchair basketball in 1991 and participated in the Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team, the Gliders, at three Paralympics from 1992 to 2000. An injury in 2000 forced her to withdraw from the sport, but she came back to the national team in 2009, and was a member of the team that represented Australia and won silver at the 2012 London Paralympics.
Sharon Slann is a wheelchair basketball player from Australia. She was part of the silver medal winning Australia women's national wheelchair basketball team at the 2000 Summer Paralympics. She was a member of the Australia team at the 1992 Barcelona Games and 1996 Athens Games. Her classification was 3.0 points at Atlanta and 2.5 points at Sydney Games.
Orfeo Cecconato, OAM is an Australian wheelchair basketball player. He was born in Melbourne, Victoria. He was part of the gold medal winning Australia men's national wheelchair basketball team at the 1996 Summer Paralympics, for which he received a Medal of the Order of Australia. In 2000, he received an Australian Sports Medal.
Benjamin Richard Cox, OAM is an Australian wheelchair basketball player. He was born in England. He was part of the gold medal winning Australia men's national wheelchair basketball team at the 1996 Summer Paralympics, for which he received a Medal of the Order of Australia.
During the 1970s and 1980s, Australian women's basketball was successful in terms of attracting participants and having a competitive team on the international stages. This success did not translate into sponsorship and financial support for the sport.
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 70 medals and finished in seventh on the medal table.
Chantal Benoit is a Canadian wheelchair basketball player. She is considered the best female wheelchair basketball player in history.
Maaike Smit is a former Dutch Wheelchair tennis and Wheelchair basketball player.
Timothy J. C. 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.
Amy Conroy is a 4.0 point British wheelchair basketball player who represented Great Britain in the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, the 2016 Summer Paralympics in a Rio de Janeiro, co captained the team to win Gold in the under 25 World Wheelchair Basketball Championships in Beijing and won a silver medal at the 2018 World Wheelchair Basketball Championships in Hamburg.
Technological changes at the Paralympic Games have had major impacts on the types of sports that are played and how those sports are played. Assistive technology in sports can be “low-tech” or can be highly advanced. Over the past decades technology at the Paralympic Games has become more specialised; with the development of tailored technologies and equipment to individual athletes and uses.
