Fast-Rising Teen Zion Redington Is Ready To Make An Impact As U.S. Wheelchair Rugby Team Aims For Gold In Paris

Zion Redington was only 17 when he made his international debut for the U.S. wheelchair rugby team last fall.

You wouldn’t have found him carrying the veterans’ bags or singing an embarrassing song in front of the team, though. The older players immediately embraced the teen. That culture is one reason why the U.S. has become a power in the sport, having medaled in every Paralympic Games and world championships since the beginning in 1995.

“It’s been enjoyable,” Redington said. “They treat me like their younger brother, just like family, and it’s amazing.”

Redington will continue to be a part of that family this summer at the Paralympic Games Paris 2024. When the Americans roll onto the court first their first game, he’s set to become the youngest U.S. wheelchair rugby athlete to compete at a Paralympics. 

Coming off a silver medal three years ago at the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020, Team USA is seeking its first Paralympic gold medal since 2008.

The Paralympics will be the third major international tournament for Redington, who turned 18 on June 3. He made his debut last October at the inaugural International Wheelchair Rugby World Cup, a prestigious tournament in France where the U.S. finished sixth. 

A few weeks later, he was Team USA’s leading scorer in its first two games at the Parapan American Games — wins over Chile and Argentina. The newcomer helped the U.S. win gold in Santiago, Chile, which punched the team’s ticket to Paris.

While Redington has been quickly adopted into the U.S. wheelchair rugby family, he’s only been able to make it this far because of his real family — specifically his mother, Heather.

“Her support to me is everything,” Redington said. “Her support is what propelled me into all of this.” 

Born in China with ectrodactyly — which left him with one finger on each hand and no toes — he spent the first two years of his life in an orphanage before Heather adopted him and brought him home to Franklin, Tennessee. At 6, he had his feet amputated for better mobility. By the time Zion was 9, Heather had him trying track and field, swimming, cycling and wheelchair basketball. 

Around that age, while playing in a wheelchair basketball tournament at the Lakeshore Foundation in Birmingham, Alabama, someone suggested he might like wheelchair rugby. It turned out he didn’t just like it, but he was really good too. After years of playing rugby in Tennessee, Redington moved to Birmingham when he was 15 so he could train at Lakeshore full time. 

Redington said he initially struggled with the move. After all, he’d spent 13 years in Tennessee, and all his friends lived there. After a year or so living in Alabama, he “got ingrained within Lakeshore and started to bloom and blossom and make friends.”

In terms of resources for wheelchair athletes, it’s hard to beat Birmingham. 

“The resources are phenomenal, mostly because of Lakeshore” he said. “There’s just not a whole lot within Tennessee.”

Redington is hopeful to help change that. Despite being barely 18, he’s already aware of the impact he can have for future Para athletes. 

“Even being as young as I am, I’m the future of my generation — the future of USA, not just as a team, but as a country,” he said. “It’s on me and my generation to propel this motion forward and to keep it moving on an optimal track.” 

In the short term, Redington has to worry about finishing high school while being a Paralympic athlete. He’ll start his senior year after returning from Paris. While he said balancing schoolwork with his athletic career can be challenging, his teachers have been accommodating for when he has to travel for international competitions. 

Once he graduates, he’s hoping to attend either Auburn University of the University of Michigan. Both of those schools feature wheelchair basketball teams — something Redington wants to pursue at the collegiate level — but Michigan offers wheelchair rugby as well. 

On top of that, Chuck Aoki, a three-time Paralympic medalist and the co-captain of the U.S. wheelchair rugby team, currently works at Michigan as a community access navigator for the school’s adaptive sports program. 

Redington said he someday hopes to be considered the greatest wheelchair rugby player of all time. He currently gives that title to Aoki, who Redington said he’s learned a ton about the sport, and life, from. 

Redington will get a chance to play alongside Aoki during his Paralympic debut this week. While he’s never experienced that level of competition for himself, he’s mentally prepared for the intensity that’s sure to come in Paris. 

“It’s the greatest competition that we can participate in,” he said. “It’s going to be a war of attrition. It’s five games in five days; it’s going to be hard for any athlete to compete (in).”