Team USA Wheelchair Rugby Dethrones Great Britain, 50-43, Advancing To Battle For Elusive Gold

PARIS – Double teamed and banged around by aggressive British opponents, Chuck Aoki remained poised, delivering a perfectly timed and well-executed pass downcourt to his streaking teammate Sarah Adam, who cruised home for a pivotal try. 

It was a dagger to the heart of the defending Paralympic champions, as the red, white and blue increased their lead to 41-36, with just over five minutes remaining in the loser goes home wheelchair rugby semifinal match at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games. 

The heroics between Aoki, Adam and Josh Wheeler continued over the waning minutes as the executed even more sweet passes and subsequent tries, as they emphatically knocked off their British rivals, 50-43.

“Our watch words coming into today were offensive spacing, patience and composure, and I thought we had a tremendous night,” said Aoki, who is competing at his fourth Paralympics. “We knew what we wanted to do today and we did it, so I’m really proud of this team as a whole, we played really well.”

It was a hard-hitting, collision-filled, high-tempo 48 minutes of wheelchair rugby at the Champ-de-Mars Arena, as expected. Both Aoki and Adam were knocked out of their wheelchairs after rugged collisions during the heated affair. With 3:14 remaining, Wheeler even lost a wheel. It was replaced; however, it seemed that Team USA would have still achieved the W, even with a wheel-less-Wheeler.

Team USA’s intricate and tactical offense resulted in a balanced scoring effort as the U.S. teammates shared the wealth. Even NFL legend Tom Brady could have learned from the complex offense with its many moving parts. Aoki led the team with 18 tries, Josh Wheeler tallied 14, and Adam 13. 

“This team has an amazing chemistry together, a great team culture, when we get out on the court it’s Friday night lights and we’re just having fun,” said Adam, one of only two females competing in wheelchair rugby in Paris.

Defensively, the U.S. forced five steals to GB’s one.

“We wanted to put pressure on them all game long – we knew we had the ability to force some turnovers against them and we did,” Aoki said. “The goal was just pressure, pressure, pressure, attack, attack, attack.”

Aoki was especially impressive dishing the ball to Adam and Wheeler.

“Chuck is phenomenal – he is dominant with the ball, he is dominant without the ball,” Wheeler said. “He and I have had so much chemistry – we’ve played together since 2010. He is really good at recognizing that we’re going to get open if he is patient.”

Aoki commended his female teammate.

“Sarah is a dynamic player offensively, and defensively too – she’s so fast and able to find gaps in the defense and attack, and that makes my job easier,” Aoki said. “Sarah is an absolute massive contributor and she’s going to be a big contributor tomorrow as well.”

“It’s all three of us and (Jeff) Butler is creating those openings for us as a low-pointer. Our chemistry really clicked today and that’s what needs to continue to happen,” Adam said.

The magical passing and seamless scoring conjured flashbacks to the Utah Jazz duo of John Stockton and Karl Malone, their pick-and-roll execution giving opponents nightmares for years. Wheeler, a former Utah resident, quickly concurred when the Beehive state hoops reference was suggested to him by a Team USA reporter.

“Most of our career together, I’ve been the assist guy and he’s scored the goals and sometimes it flips around,” Wheeler said. “It is a Stockton to Malone thing that we’ve developed over the years. We just know that we’re going to be ready for each other.”

Veterans Aoki, 33, and Wheeler, 44, both played on the previous two U.S. wheelchair rugby teams that won silver medals at the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 U.S. Paralympic Teams. In Tokyo, the U.S. lost a heartbreaker to Team GB, 54-49, and settled for silver.

“There was a little bit of a chip on our shoulder – we have six veterans who lost to them in Tokyo, so we wanted to come out and put them to bed and that’s what we did,” Adam said.

The last time USA Wheelchair Rugby won Paralympic gold was at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games.

On Monday, Sept. 2, Aoki and the American Wheelchair Rugby players will be on a mission to bring home an elusive Paralympics gold medal. They’ll once again battle Japan, an opponent that they lost to, 45-42, in the preliminary round. 

“We did not play very well in that match, so we’ll certainly go back and review that film and figure out what we can do better,” Aoki said. 

“The script that we’ve written tonight is play really good offense the rest will take care of itself,” said the team’s co-captain.

“We need to be calm and methodical on offense and that will be the Team USA plan,” Adam added.

Aoki undoubtedly takes immense pride in his training, physical fitness and is a gladiator on the court, a competitor who has one more conquest ahead.

“I’ve trained for this – I’ve trained not to leave the court and I haven’t done it so far and I don’t plan to, not until we win a gold medal,” he said.