Sarah Adam becomes first woman to play on U.S. wheelchair rugby team

PARIS — The U.S. and Canada wheelchair rugby teams were battling it out on the court as an announcement broke through with 5:53 remaining in the first quarter. History had just been made at Champ-de-Mars Arena.

Sarah Adam had just scored the first try for an American woman in the Paralympics on Thursday. The first-time Paralympian and first woman to play on the U.S. wheelchair rugby team received a loud chorus of applause after scoring, in recognition of her historic moment. 

Adam said she felt excited to be a part of the swelling interest in women’s sports. 

“We know people are going to fall in love with our stories and our sports and to be able to do that alongside these amazing teammates — this is truly a special team and I'm honored to be a part of it.”

Adam scored six tries against Canada in 16:09 minutes on the court, helping lead the American team to a 51-48 victory Thursday in the Group A preliminary round of wheelchair rugby.

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The team — which has been in Paris for about a week — had been focused on settling into the host country and reconnecting before Thursday’s opener.

“She has fit in perfectly,” co-team captain Chuck Aoki said. “There's no other way to put it. She has just embraced her role as a player on the team. I have been so, so impressed with what Sarah's been able to do.”

Adam feels the same way. She’s been welcomed with open arms since making the national team in 2022. She described the feeling as being a little sister on the team. 

Sometimes that means her teammates are overprotective, Adam said, but they don’t treat her any differently on the playing field. 

“I think from the beginning it was still treating me no different than any other athlete out there, which I've really appreciated,” Adam said. “... The standards never changed and that has been my goal from the beginning … I think today I was able to go out there and prove that.”

Adam’s welcome to the Paralympic stage came against a physical Canada team — one that has garnered rival status for the Americans. The group met that physical style head-on to come away with the victory. 

Leading the charge was Aoki with 21 tries. Josh Wheeler was not far behind with 11. 

“Happy with the win,” Aoki said. “Certainly Canada brought it as we knew they would. But yeah, happy with the win. Ultimately — we've got a lot we can clean up, which is both frustrating but also exciting. So overall happy, but certainly need to do more.”

The win was not the easiest for Team USA. After being down by as much as four, Canada went on an 8-6 run to close the gap and head into halftime down just 25-24 to the Americans. Some strategic timeouts in the second helped keep the Canada run in check, as the U.S. team refocused on sticking to their playing style. 

The quick play from Adam, who impacted the game both when she had the ball and played off it, helped seal the win for the Americans. 

“I think we've got a little bit of work to do,” Adam said. “We came out hot and really (played) USA ball and had a little bit of a hiccup in the second quarter, but I'm proud of us for pulling it back together, sticking back to the game plan, but now we really need to find a way to put all four quarters together.”