Paris Awaits: Josh Wheeler '23 BSBA (Accounting) '24 MSA Will Go for Gold at the 2024 Paralympic Games
Image provided by University of Arizona News
Josh Wheeler '23 BSBA (Accounting) '24 MSA flashes a smile as he races across the basketball court. Arms pumping furiously, hands pushing against the wheels of his new wheelchair, his eyes track a red-and-white striped ball as it sails through the air over his left shoulder.
The ball comes up short, landing just inches behind Wheeler's chair as he nears the end of the court. Eyes trained on his target, he comes to a quick stop, turns, reaches out and grasps the ball with one hand as his chair tips on to one wheel.
Quite the precarious position.
At first glance it may seem like a near-accident, but the maneuver only causes Wheeler to laugh as he warms up for practice at the University of Arizona Campus Recreation's SouthREC facility. Wheeler can be found in the gym three days a week, running drills with his teammates. After passing exercises and wind sprints, Wheeler ends the training session tired and sweating – though his smile remains.
Belying his upbeat demeanor, Wheeler takes his training seriously. In just over a week, he and the other members of Team USA's wheelchair rugby squad will face off against the Canadian national team in the preliminary rounds of the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris.
In addition to wearing the stars and stripes for Team USA, Wheeler was a longtime member of the U of A's wheelchair rugby team and is a recent graduate of the Eller College of Management. He moved from Oregon to Tucson, his wife's hometown, in 2015 and enrolled at the university in 2020, after the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo. Wheeler earned a bachelor's degree in business administration before completing his online master's degree in accounting in May.
Taking on Canada in the Champ-de-Mars Arena won't be Wheeler's first time playing on the world stage. A longtime member of Team USA's wheelchair rugby squad, he was a member of the silver-medalist teams at both the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and the 2020 games in Tokyo.
This year, Wheeler's mind is set on winning gold in front of his family.
"I want to be able to play at the top of my game – as close to perfect as possible – and dial in some of the stuff that I have worked on a lot over the years," he said. "Tokyo was very quiet, and to be able to have my family in Paris is something I'm really excited for. To know they are there supporting me is going to be really cool."
Wheeler will travel to Paris alongside some of the sport's preeminent athletes. The USA national wheelchair rugby team is the world's most decorated Paralympic wheelchair program, and the only wheelchair rugby program to win a medal at every Paralympic Games since the sport was added in 2000. Team USA will compete against Canada in the first round of preliminary games before taking on Japan and Germany. The results of those three matches will determine the team's standing moving forward in the contest, and whether Team USA will have a chance to go for its first gold in the sport since 2008.
"Team USA has a balanced lineup and a lot of players that are really good," Wheeler said. "If we play our game, it will be hard for anybody in the world to beat us."
This story originally appeared in news.arizona.edu and was written by Logan Burtch-Buus, University Communications.