Armchair Playmaker enjoys following both rugby union and rugby league, with occasional attention to variations such as rugby union sevens, but today we’ll note that there is another rugby code out there…and the United States are the best in the world at it!
The United States wheelchair rugby team won the gold medal yesterday at the 2008 Paralympic Games in Beijing, China. The U.S. side, who also won world championships in 1996 and 2000 but lost in the semifinals in 2004, defeated Australia in the 2008 final. This may come as good news to fans of the 2005 documentary film Murderball, which followed the United States’ thwarted world championsip run in 2004 and brought wheelchair rugby to a massive worldwide audience.
In case you haven’t had a chance to watch Murderball, or in case you just want to see a bit more of the sport, we’ve compiled some videos here. For those interested in how wheelchair rugby is played (there are also other variations, such as wheelchair rugby league), the below clip provides some basic background:
Here are some highlights from the United States’ win over Canada (the nation where the sport was invented) earlier in the 2008 games:
Here is a video from the 2008 silver medalists, Australia’s Steelers:
Finally, here are a few big hits to show that wheelchair rugby is definitely intense:
