Photo courtesy of Lars Moeller

Sarah Adam of the United States pushes against Great Britain at the 2022 World Wheelchair Rugby Championships in Denmark.

Sarah Adam and Liz Dunn made history at the 2022 Wheelchair Rugby World Championship in Denmark in October, becoming the first women to compete for USA Wheelchair Rugby at a major championship. Their strong play helped USA Wheelchair Rugby win the silver medal, the team’s best finish since 2010, when they won gold. “After all the work we put in the last year, it was great to finally take the court as a team and show everyone we were there to win,” Dunn says.

Adam, of Naperville, Illinois, and Dunn, of Warren, Pennsylvania, were named to the squad in December 2021. They left no doubt they belonged on the hardwood with a strong showing in July at their first international competition, Lakeshore Foundation’s Tri Nations Tournament in Birmingham, Alabama.

USA Wheelchair Rugby Interim Head Coach Joe Delagrave says Adam and Dunn have been great for the team. “I think their inclusion on the team and their performance mean we are evolving and seeing value in females competing for spots on a competitive roster,” Delagrave says.

Both women saw extensive court time in Denmark and played key roles in the team’s silver medal finish. In a preliminary round game against Great Britain, Adam was the leading scorer for Team USA with 17 points and was named player of the match by tournament officials. “A moment that stood out for me was a play where my teammate Joe Jackson was able to push a GB player toward the sideline so I could come in with the hard hit and flip him for a turnover,” says Adam. “It was right in front of our bench, and everyone went wild cheering. I later heard that my students at Saint Louis University in the Occupational Therapy program were watching, and they absolutely erupted in celebration when I made that hit.”

That energy made it easier to go out and have fun playing the game they love. “There were certainly some nerves the first time on the court at a major tournament like the World Championship. In those moments, being able to rely on my teammates, on our preparation for this moment, and falling back on the game plan helps turn those nerves into excitement,” Adam says.

Photo courtesy Lakeshore Foundation/Bernard Troncale

Liz Dunn trains at a USA Wheelchair Rugby camp in Birmingham, Alabama.

When it comes to playing with each other, both athletes have similar feelings. “It’s a lot of fun playing with Sarah,” says Dunn. “I enjoy having her around, and it’s great to see her get better as well. We even got a chance to play on the court together during one game, which was fantastic.”

“My first time playing in an international game, I entered the court with Liz” says Adam. “I couldn’t think of a better way to start my USA career than with Liz by my side.”

Growing Representation

There were 13 women competing for eight different countries at this year’s world championships. The top four finishers — Australia, USA, Japan and Denmark — all had women, or multiple women, on their rosters. More importantly, female players were seeing significant court time in medal rounds and the most competitive games. Some would call it a sea change for women competing at the highest levels of the sport.  

But despite a record number of women competing at the World Championship, Dunn and Adam agree that obstacles remain for increased female participation in wheelchair rugby. For women who are on the fence about playing, not having another female present at those first practices can be enough to deter them from coming back. Adam says she’s not sure if rehabilitation therapists are promoting adaptive sports with their female clients as much as with their male ones. She guesses they are even less likely to introduce wheelchair rugby as an option for women, given its physicality and history as a male sport.

Instead of seeing themselves as pioneers, Dunn and Adam embrace their roles as mentors. Their personal experiences have shown them the value of being able to support and relate to other women with similar experiences. Adams has chatted with Great Britain’s Kylie Grimes about getting more women into the sport and focusing on them as athletes first. Dunn says Grimes is great at encouraging her to stick with it and keep playing.

One of Adam’s mentors is Kerri Morgan, the first woman to make the USA Wheelchair Rugby training squad and a Paralympic medalist in track. Adam adds, “I certainly want to be thought of as an athlete first. I don’t necessarily want my legacy to be solely that I was a woman competing in a male dominated sport. There are a lot of athletes who dream of competing on the international stage, many of whom are women. If I can even be a small part in aiding their journey, like what Kerri Morgan did for me, I am happy to fill that role.”

Photo courtesy Lakeshore Foundation/Bernard Troncale

Sarah Adam and teammate Chuck Melton try to block a pass from Canada’s Matt Debly.

Adam hopes to see more women competing at the international level, aided by an increased number of women joining club teams around the world. “Back home in St. Louis, we had our first club team practice a few weeks ago. We had five women show up for practice, which was by far a record representation of females for us,” says Adam.

Women from several different countries have come together to form a team to compete in tournaments in the U.S. Wheelchair Rugby Association league, and the University of Houston puts on an international women’s wheelchair camp each summer. There has been talk of starting an all-female league. Although there have been several successful all-female international camps and tournaments, Adam is uncertain if there are enough women to fill the rosters for an entire league.

Delagrave says things are changing in a good way but thinks the sport needs to keep increasing programs that foster women’s participation. “I think we still need to communicate how we can be accommodating to the female athlete without making it female first, athlete second.”

Moving forward, both Adam and Dunn have their eyes firmly on the court. The next round of tryouts are in March and then it’s full speed to Paris 2024. They hope to become the first women to compete for USA Wheelchair Rugby at a Paralympics, while helping the team get back atop the podium for the first time since 2008. “It feels like there is this synergy that is just beginning to form that I look forward seeing peak at the Paralympics,” says Adam.