Wheelchair basketball is one of the world’s oldest para-sports. It was part of the first sports to be played at the Paralympic Games in 1960. However, wheelchair basketball didn’t start then. Second world war veterans in the U.S. have been playing the game since 1945. Even Ludwig Guttman, who invented the Paralympic games used this game to rehabilitate patients in the United Kingdom.
In 1947, Wheelchair basketball was played in the Stoke Mandeville Wheelchair Games. It was the second time the event was held.
In 1949, the US established its National Wheelchair Basketball Association.
Also Read: About Wheelchair Basketball Sports
In 1968, a women’s tournament was held at Tel Aviv.
In 1973, the first world championship held.
Wheelchair basketball is one of the most popular Para sports worldwide. It has up to a million players in more than 100 countries all over the world.
Wheelchair basketball is incredibly fast. So fast that contact and collision is unavoidable. However head-on-collision is not permitted.
When it comes to men Paralympic tournament, Canada is taking lead recently by winning in four out of five games. Patrick Anderson has led his team to win Paralympic gold for three years.
In women, US is dominating. They’ve won four Paralympic titles including the Rio 2016 gold. They’ve also won two world titles in the Paralympic games.
To play wheelchair basketball, players move the ball around the court by passing or dribbling it. They must pass and bounce the ball after every two pushes on their wheelchair so not to get a penalty for traveling. There are no rules concerning double dribble. A player is allowed to dribble, keep the ball on their laps in order to take two pushes and then dribble again.
It is possible to play wheelchair basketball with players who have a wide variety of sport classes at the same time.
Low pointers are players whose functional ability are quite low (about 1.0). While high pointers rank about 4.5
Another thing, a team scores only 14 points among 5 players on a court at one time.
When both high pointer and low pointer plays from different teams, a low pointer tries to block a high pointer from the opposing team. That gives his team’s high pointer and mid pointers leverage to move freely against the other team.
Former IPC President, Sir Philip Craven, , played for Great Britain at the first World Championships and led them to victory. He went on to compete five more time.
There are players who make a living professionally from wheelchair basketball. Also, pro leagues exists in every continent except Africa as of course Antarctica. There’ll be a pro women’s league next year, courtesy of Great Britain.
The last Champions League Europe hosted, a team in Germany won 7 titles while one team each in Turkey and Netherland won 5 titles each.
This game will be played at two venues in Tokyo. The preliminary round will be in the Musashino Forest Sports Plaza and the Ariake Arena, which will also host the playoffs.
The Yoyogi National Gymnasium, hosted the wheelchair basketball during the second Paralympic Games in Tokyo in 1964, will now host Para badminton and wheelchair rugby at Tokyo 202O. Ref: paralympic.
