| Wheelchair rugby at the Summer Paralympics | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Governing body | IWRF |
| Events | 1 (mixed) |
| Games | |
| Note: demonstration sport years indicated in italics | |
Wheelchair rugby was first contested at the Summer Paralympics as a demonstration sport in 1996. It became an official medal-awarding sport in 2000 and has been competed at every Summer Paralympics since then. Only one event, mixed team, is held.
| Year | Host | Gold medal game | Bronze medal game | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gold medalist | Score | Silver medalist | Bronze medalist | Score | Fourth place | ||||
| 1996 details | Atlanta |  United States | 37 - 30 |  Canada |  New Zealand | 46 - 34 |  Great Britain | ||
| 2000 details | Sydney | United States | 32 - 31 |  Australia | New Zealand | 44 - 32 | Canada | ||
| 2004 details | Athens | New Zealand | 31 - 29 | Canada | United States | 43 - 39 | Great Britain | ||
| 2008 details | Beijing | United States | 53 - 44 | Australia | Canada | 47 - 41 | Great Britain | ||
| 2012 details | London | Australia | 66 - 51 | Canada | United States | 53 - 43 |  Japan | ||
| 2016 details | Rio de Janeiro | Australia | 59 - 58 | United States | Japan | 52 - 50 | Canada | ||
| 2020 details | Tokyo | Great Britain | 54 - 49 | United States | Japan | 60 - 52 | Australia | ||
| 2024 details | Paris | Japan | 48 - 41 | United States | Australia | 50 - 48 | Great Britain | ||
Updated after the 2024 Summer Paralympics
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  United States | 3 | 3 | 2 | 8 |
| 2 |  Australia | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
| 3 |  Japan | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 |
 New Zealand | 1 | 0 | 2 | 3 | |
| 5 |  Great Britain | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 6 |  Canada | 0 | 3 | 1 | 4 |
| Totals (6 entries) | 8 | 8 | 8 | 24 | |
Four nations - United States, Canada, Australia and Great Britain have appeared in every wheelchair rugby Paralympic tournament since its introduction. The 1996 tournament was considered a demonstration event, but unlike the Olympics, medals were awarded and counted in the main medals table.
The final placement for each team in each tournament is shown in the following tables.
| Team | 1996 | 2000 |  2004 |  2008 | 2012 |  2016 | 2020 |  2024 |
 Australia | 6th |  | 5th | |  | | 4th |  |
 Belgium | – | – | 6th | – | 7th | – | – | - |
| Brazil | – | – | – | – | – | 8th | – | - |
 Canada | | 4th | | | | 4th | 5th | 6th |
 China | – | – | – | 8th | – | – | – | - |
 Denmark | – | – | – | – | – | – | 7th | 7th |
 France | – | – | – | – | 8th | 7th | 6th | 5th |
 Germany | – | 7th | 7th | 6th | – | – | – | 8th |
 Great Britain | 4th | 6th | 4th | 4th | 5th | 5th | | 4th |
 Japan | – | – | 8th | 7th | 4th | | | |
 New Zealand | | | | 5th | – | – | 8th | - |
 Sweden | 5th | 5th | – | – | 6th | 6th | – | - |
 Switzerland | – | 8th | – | – | – | – | – | - |
 United States | | | | | | | | |
The Paralympic Games or Paralympics, also known as the Games of the Paralympiad, is a periodic series of international multisport events involving athletes with a range of disabilities. There are Winter and Summer Paralympic Games, which since the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, have been held shortly after the corresponding Olympic Games. All Paralympic Games are governed by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC).
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.
The 1964 Summer Paralympics, originally known as the 13th International Stoke Mandeville Games and also known as Paralympic Tokyo 1964, were the second Paralympic Games to be held. They were held in Tokyo, Japan, and were the last Summer Paralympics to take place in the same city as the Summer Olympics until the 1988 Summer Paralympics.
The 2004 Summer Paralympics, the 12th Summer Paralympic Games, were a major international multi-sport event for athletes with disabilities governed by the International Paralympic Committee, held in Athens, Greece from 17 to 28 September 2004. 3,808 athletes from 136 countries participated. During these games 304 World Records were broken with 448 Paralympic Games Records being broken across 19 different sports. 8,863 volunteers worked along the Organizing Committee.
A demonstration sport, or exhibition sport, is a sport which is played to promote it, rather than as part of standard medal competition. This occurs commonly during the Olympic Games but may also occur at other sporting events.
The Paralympic sports comprise all the sports contested in the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games. As of 2020, the Summer Paralympics included 22 sports and 539 medal events, and the Winter Paralympics include 5 sports and disciplines and about 80 events. The number and kinds of events may change from one Paralympic Games to another.
The United States sent a delegation to compete at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, China. A total of 213 U.S. competitors took part in 18 sports; the only 2 sports Americans did not compete in were soccer 5-a-side and 7-a-side. The American delegation included 16 former members of the U.S. military, including 3 veterans of the Iraq War. Among them were shot putter Scott Winkler, who was paralyzed in an accident in Iraq, and swimmer Melissa Stockwell, a former United States Army officer who lost her left leg to a roadside bomb in the war.
The Winter Paralympic Games is an international multi-sport event where athletes with physical disabilities compete in snow and ice sports. The event includes athletes with mobility impairments, amputations, blindness, and cerebral palsy. The Winter Paralympic Games are held every four years directly following the Winter Olympic Games and hosted in the same city. The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) oversees the Games. Medals are awarded in each event: with gold for first place, silver for second, and bronze for third, following the tradition that the Olympic Games began in 1904.
Wheelchair basketball has been contested at the Summer Paralympic Games since the 1960 Summer Paralympics in Rome.
Wheelchair rugby at the 1996 Summer Paralympics consisted of a mixed team event. Wheelchair rugby was being contested as a demonstration sport, and not an official part of the Paralympic program, but medals were awarded and stayed on medal table. Six teams took part in the sport; Sweden and Australia were eliminated after the preliminary round.
Australia has participated officially in every Paralympic Games since its inauguration in 1960 with the exception of the 1976 Winter Paralympics.
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has participated in every summer and winter Paralympic Games.
The Great Britain national wheelchair rugby team represents Great Britain in international wheelchair rugby. Great Britain is the most successful team in European competition, winning six gold medals at the European Championship and a gold at the 2020 Paralympic Games. Since a national poll as part of The Last Leg, the team have been known as The Sweet Chariots.
The United States competed at the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, United Kingdom, from August 29 to September 9, 2012.
Australia competed at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Games in London, United Kingdom, from 29 August to 9 September 2012. The London Games were the biggest Games with 164 nations participating, 19 more than in the 2008 Beijing Paralympic. Australia has participated at every Summer Paralympic Games and hosted the 2000 Sydney Games. As such, the 2000 Sydney Games, regarded as one of the more successful Games, became a point-of-reference and an inspiration in the development of the 2012 London 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.
The 13th International Stoke Mandeville Games, later known as the 1964 Summer Paralympics, was an international multi-sport event held in Tokyo, Japan, from November 3 to 12, 1964, in which paraplegic and tetraplegic athletes competed against one another. The Stoke Mandeville Games were a forerunner to the Paralympics first organized by Sir Ludwig Guttmann in 1948. This medal table ranks the competing National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) by the number of gold medals won by their athletes.
Iran competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 September to 18 September 2016.
The Wheelchair rugby tournament at the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, Japan was the seventh edition of Wheelchair rugby as a Paralympic sport since its debut as a demonstration sport at the 1996 Summer Paralympics in Atlanta. The competition was hosted at the Yoyogi National Stadium and was held from 25 to 29 August 2021.
This article contains lists of achievements in major senior-level international rugby union, rugby sevens, rugby league and wheelchair rugby tournaments according to first-place, second-place and third-place results obtained by teams representing different nations. The objective is not to create combined medal tables; the focus is on listing the best positions achieved by teams in major international tournaments, ranking the nations according to the most number of podiums accomplished by teams of these nations.
International wheelchair rugby | ||
|---|---|---|
| Americas |  | |
| Asia-Oceania | ||
| Europe | ||
| Summer sports | |
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| Winter sports | |
| Discontinued sports | |
| Demonstration sports | |
