Many people often assume that because you are disabled you have no right to play sport but tell that to the paralympics and the extremely successful Special Olympics. One of the most common disabled sports is wheelchair basketball. It is one of the most widely played sports by disabled people around the world.

Basketball In Wheelchairs

Wheelchair basketball is played by thousands of disabled people across the world. This disabled sport is governed by the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation (IWBF) and is recognized by the International Paralympic Committee as a disability sport.

The IWBF has 82 National Organizations for Wheelchair Basketball, each participating in wheelchair basketball actively all around the year. As per the IWBF’s statistics, over 100,000 people across the world enjoy this popular disabled sport. Some of these players simply enjoy it for recreational purposes while others play professionally and even represent their country at international levels. Whether you are a man or a woman or even a child, you can play wheelchair basket ball too.

It must however be noted that wheelchair basketball is not just a casual sport and is in fact a very cometitive disabled sport and as a result, it is not surprising that it is one of the mot popular disability sports at the quadr-annual Paralympic Games.  Participants from several countries participate in the Paralympic Games, some of the most common including USA, Canada, Australia, Great Britain, The Netherlands and Japan. The winning country receives the Gold Cup for Wheelchair Basketball.

Basketball In Wheelchairs: Other Details

Wheelchair basketball first started being played in the 1940s through a rehabilitation program at the Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire, England. It has since developed and grown into an internationall well known disability sport. While it was initially known as Wheelchair Netball, it finally developed into what is today known as Wheerlchair Basketball.

In addition to the Paralympics, players of wheelchair basketball also compete in several other events. One of the most important competitions for his disabled sport is the Wheelchair Basketball World Championship (WBWC).  It started in 1973 and was first played in Bruges, Belgium and the championships wre won by the team from Great Britain.  The next WBWC is due to be held in 2010 and will be hosted by Birmingham, England.