Wheelchair rugby at Tokyo Paralympics: All you need to know

The wheelchairs are designed to handle the hits and crashes that occur during the game

Key information

Dates: 25-29 August

Venue: Yoyogi National Stadium

Gold medals on offer: One

How does it work?

Wheelchair rugby is played indoors on a regulation-size basketball court by teams of four, using a white ball that is identical in size and shape to a volleyball. Teams are mixed, with men and women both competing in the same team.

A match consists of four eight-minute quarters and the team scoring the greatest number of goals wins. If teams are level at the end of regulation play, it goes to a three-minute overtime period.

To score, an athlete must cross the opposing team's goalline in firm control of the ball. Two wheels must cross the goalline for a score to count.

Athletes must dribble or pass the ball every 10 seconds with failure to do so resulting in the referee handing possession of the ball over to the opposing team.

Contact between wheelchairs is permitted and forms an integral part of the game. However, hitting an opponent's chair behind the rear wheel results in penalisation, as does making physical contact with an opponent.

Players may lose possession of the ball, serve a one-minute penalty or be disqualified depending on the extent of the foul committed.

Athletes with tetraplegia or conditions including polio, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy and amputations are classified with a points system from 0.5 (highest level of impairment) up to 3.5.

In general, 0.5 and 1.0 players are blockers and do not handle the ball as much as higher class players. This is mostly because of a high level of impairment in their upper limbs that means these players may not easily pick up or pass the ball.

1.5 players are predominantly blockers but may occasionally handle the ball. 2.0 and 2.5 players are both ball handlers and, because of an increasingly high level of strength in their shoulders, can build up speed on court. This makes them good 'playmakers'.

3.0 and 3.5 players have a high degree of strength and stability in the trunk and are therefore usually the fastest players on court. The higher functionality in their upper limbs means they can handle and pass the ball comparatively easily.

In international wheelchair rugby, the total number of points of all four athletes playing on court at any one time cannot exceed 8.0 points unless there is a woman on the court, in which case the team are allowed an extra 0.5.

What are the British medal hopes?

Great Britain are still chasing their first medal in the sport having lost in three bronze-medal play-offs. In Rio they finished fifth for the second Games in a row.

However, they have won the last three European Championships - 2015, 2017 and 2019 - and it feels like only a matter of time before they make a breakthrough on the world stage.

Who are the other challengers?

Australia are the two-time defending champions, thanks to a dramatic double overtime win over the USA in Rio in 2016 and are also the number one-ranked team in the world. But the Steelers, as they are known, were shocked by Japan in the final of the World Championship in 2018.

Did you know?

The sport, known as Murderball, was invented in Canada in the 1970s by a group of athletes with quadriplegia who were looking for an alternative to wheelchair basketball.

ParalympicsGB Rio 2016 medals

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