The 2022 USA Wheelchair Rugby Training Squad poses on Dec. 6, 2021 in Birmingham, Ala.
When USA Wheelchair Rugby announced its national training squad for 2022 earlier this month, two of the 16 names called were women.
To give that some context, no woman has ever competed for USA Wheelchair Rugby at the Paralympic Games.
Sarah Adam and Liz Dunn hope to change that come the Paralympic Games Paris 2024.
“It’s really neat to break down barriers,” said Adam, a Naperville, Illinois, native. ”If it’s a sport you love to play, no mater how physical or how male dominated, there’s a way and there’s a place for you, and women are showing that’s the case in a bunch of different sports.”
For Adam, it was her first tryout ever. For Dunn, she’s been around the block before, having made the 16-player squad last season before just missing one of the 12 spots on the Tokyo 2020 roster that won a silver medal.
“No one knows who’s ever going to make it,” said Dunn, who is from Warren, Pennsylvania. “You’re always waiting until the last minute to see who they choose. I wasn’t sure this year because I didn’t know what was going through the minds of those on the selection committee.”
Wheelchair rugby has always been a mixed gender sport since it debuted at the Paralympic Games Sydney 2000, but only five women have competed at the Paralympics: Josie Pearson (Great Britain), Kylie Grimes (Great Britain), Bieke Ketelbuters (Belgium), Coral Batey (Great Britain) and Miranda Biletski (Canada).
The American women are friendly with several of those athletes, having met them at the annual women’s only wheelchair rugby camp hosted by the University of Houston. They’ve been able to trade stories and training tips and chat about what it’s like to be a minority in the sport.
“It’s certainly male dominated, but I never let that steer me away from it. I like the full contact,” Adam said. “(Team USA) has a great culture going on right now. I’m buying into this really supportive, positive culture. They don’t treat us any differently. They don’t take it easy on us just because we are the females on the court.”
