#wheelchair basketball

Josie Aslakson is a 25 year old paralympic wheelchair basketball player for Team USA.

Josie was born in Edina, a small city in the state of Minnesota. While born able-bodied, she sustained a complete spinal cord injury in a car accident at the age of 5. Despite receiving excellent hospital care, this meant she would be completely paralyzed from the waist down for the rest of her life and that she would never have any feeling in her legs again.

Fortunately, the accident didn’t cause any other medical issues and Josie grew up in excellent health. Obviously, growing up as a wheelchair user comes with some challenges from time to time, but while however she sometimes felt sorry that she couldn’t participate in everything her friends and classmates did, Josie always stood out with her extremely positive attitude!

At the age of 13, Josie was practicing at one of her archery lessons, and the basketball coach(who was training at the same time) pushed her to try basketball. The coach immediately spotted that Josie had quite some talent and encouraged her to give it a go.

In the beginning Josie played together with the ‘regular’ basketball team of Jordan High School, which she attended and contrary to what you might expect, she matched the level of her teammates very well and even turned out as one of the top players of the team!

After high school, Josie switched to the womens wheelchair basketball team of the the University of Texas at Arlington, the Lady Movin’ Mavs. This is where her talent fully blossomed and in 2014, she was selected for the World Wheelchair Basketball Championship in Incheon, South Korea where she and her teammates finished second(after Australia). In 2018, she then played for Team USA in the World Championships in Hamburg, Germany, where she finished 6’th.

Now, Josie is preparing for her first ever Paralympic Games, which will start in a couple of weeks in Tokyo, Japan! Good luck Josie

If you’re interested, you can check out Josie’s Instagram page. I can also really recommend the great interview Josie recently had with Palms to Pines Parasports⬇️

Good luck to Josie and Team USA!

Paralympic Athletes Get Equal Pay for the First Time at Tokyo Olympics!

US Paralympic athletes will receive equal pay for the first time at the Tokyo Olympics

Excellent

Elizabeth Becker is a very talented 21 year old wheelchair basketball player from Charlotte, North Carolina.

Elizabeth has been a wheelchair user for all her life because of spina bifida myelomeningocele. Myelomeningocele is a congenital condition in which there grows a malformation in the spine during pregnancy, causing damage to the spinal cord. Because of this, Elizabeth has been paralyzed from her waist down for all her life and she never had any feeling in her legs. She also has a slight degree of scoliosis.

As a child, Elizabeth came into contact with a woman who asked her if she had ever played wheelchair basketball and if she might be interest in giving it a try. At first, she wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about this idea, but after some encouragement from her parents, Elizabeth visited a training of their local team, the Charlotte Rolling Hornets. Totally unexpected, she immediately loved it and it soon became apparent that she even had quite a bit of talent for it.

After graduating from high school, Elizabeth went on to follow a study in Broadcasting at the University of Texas at Arlington, where she had the opportunity to join their collegiate wheelchair basketball team, the Lady Movin’ Mavericks.

In 2019, Elizabeth represented the National U25 Women’s Wheelchair Basketball Team. Later that year, she and her team became world champion in the IWBF’s Women’s U25 Wheelchair Basketball World Championships in Thailand!

Elizabeth’s great performances in the U25 team eventually contributed to a place for her in Team USA, and if all goes well, she will represent her country in the upcoming Paralympic Games in Tokyo later this year!

If you’re interested, you should absolutely check out this great interview Elizabeth had with the “Women in Sports” podcast, where she talks about the sport of wheelchair basketball and what it means to her;

Jeremie Thomas is an amazing, 32 year old, wheelchair basketball player and musician from Pompano Beach, a city in the Southern part of Florida.

Before he was born, his mother was involved in a car accident. As a result of this, Jeremie was born prematurely, weighing just two pounds and eight ounces. After delivery, he was diagnosed with both spina bifida and Cerebral Palsy. Because of this, Jeremie has been completely paralyzed from his waist down for all his life and he never had any feeling in his legs.

Despite his premature birth, Jeremie grew up in excellent health and his upper body developed exceptionally well.

Jeremie never let his disability stop him and he developed an interest in sports and music at an early age.

Jeremie always liked to play all kinds of games with his friends and he didn’t shy away from a game of American football in the local park. Around the age of 12, Jeremie was picked to play on a friend’s team and scored the game-winning “hail mary” (long pass) touchdown. In awe of what they had all witnessed, his friends cheered in excitement and chanted “WHEELCHAIR MOSS, WHEELCHAIR MOSS…”, referring to Jeremie’s favorite football player, Randy Moss.

Around the age of 18, Jeremie started playing wheelchair basketball for the Miami Heat Wheels. Already at the first training, he impressed the coach with his ability to move in his chair along with the ball. He also recognized his speed, toughness, and aggressive defense. After playing Division III wheelchair basketball for three years (and loving every minute of it), he was recruited by the Oklahoma State University Spokes , giving him the opportunity to take his game to the Collegiate level. After playing for two years in Oklahoma, Jeremie returned to his home team, the Miami Heat Wheels, for whom he competed ever since.

In 2016, Jeremie was also featured in the award-winning documentary “The Rebound - A Wheelchair Basketball Story,” which portrays “his” team, the Miami Heat Wheels.

Besides his activities on the basketball court, Jeremie is an aspiring musician who writes catchy, witty rap songs and regularly performs at a local nightclub.

If you’d like to know more about Jeremie, you can check out his Instagram page right here or you can visit his Facebook page by clicking the link down below ⬇️

Jeremie “Phenom” Thomas

Danny Higgins is a great, 27 year old wheelchair basketball player, boxer and gym instructor from the English city of Leicester.

Danny was born with Sacral Agenesis, also known as Caudal Regression Syndrome. This is a congenital condition in which the lowest portion of the spine(the sacrum) fails to develop during pregnancy. Because of this, Danny has been paralyzed from his waist down for all his life. Besides that, his legs are slightly malformed and a bit shorter than normal.

As he grew up, Danny always had a very active lifestyle and a huge interest in all kinds of sports. During his time in primary school, he decided to join the Leicester Cobra’s, the wheelchair basketball team in his hometown. In no time, he managed to master the sport and he soon turned out to be of great value for his team.

Besides basketball, Danny was also attracted to a more uncommon sport for someone with a disability; boxing…

After doing some research, Danny came into contact with the Adaptive Boxing Organization(ABO) and decided to give it a try. He soon turned out to be an excellent fighter and won an impressive amount of medals and trophies! If you’d like to know more about about wheelchair boxing, you should absolutely check out this great article from Vice News about the sport. Also you can re-watch several of Danny’s fights on YouTube

In September last year, Danny decided to put boxing on the back burner for a while as he was offered a contract with the Megas Alexandros wheelchair basketball team in Thessaloniki, Greece.

In September last year, Danny was offered a contract with the Megas Alexandros wheelchair basketball team in Thessaloniki, Greece. Although this ment that he had to put boxing on the back burner for a while, he couldn’t let this great opportunity pass!Unfortunately, after the coronavirus situation worsened again, Danny hasn’t been able to play for months on end now. Let’s hope he can soon get back in action

If you’d like to follow Danny on Instagram, you can do so by clicking the link right here!

Paralympic Games

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