Wheelchair Rugby Gives Paralyzed Athlete Hope

posted on Nov 17 by Stacy in the Disability News, Wheelchair Sports category

An athlete plays quad wheelchair rugby for the National Veterans Wheelchair Games in 2007

Even after a trampoline accident on the last day of high school paralyzed Talbot Kennedy from the chest down, he is still an athlete.
Talbot considers his rugby team his second family. Several nights a week he can be seen scrimmaging on an indoor basketball court at the Shepherd Center (a rehab hospital) in Atlanta. The Smash Rugby team is part of the United States Quad Rugby Association, and November through April plays in tournaments across the United States.

When first injured Talbot worried about being able to live alone and do the things he did before his accident, but when he joined the rugby team he found that some of his teammates not only lived alone, but some even had families and children. He has gained confidence and learned to live again, just in a different way.

Off the court, Kennedy lives alone, attends college and is working toward a degree in physical education, something he says would not have been possible without wheelchair rugby.

More at CNN.