Chuck Aoki: ‘You can sometimes feel limited by your disability. But in wheelchair rugby, your wheelchair is an asset’

(CNN) — Chuck Aoki is the most decorated wheelchair rugby player in US history, but that did not stop him from feeling a touch of disappointment as the Americans took silver in the Paralympics on Monday having lost 48-41 to Japan.

“I think that obviously as a competitor, you want to do your absolute best, and the best you can do is a gold medal,” he told CNN Sport’s Patrick Snell. “So it’s going to be disappointing any time you come up short of that. But there’s a lot of sweetness in silver.”

Aoki made his first Paralympics appearance at London 2012, where the team claimed the bronze medal. That was followed by three consecutive Paralympic silvers – Rio in 2016, Tokyo in 2021 and this week’s second-place finish in Paris.

The American has used a wheelchair since he was 12, having been born with hereditary sensory and autonomic neuropathy (HSAN), which inhibits sensation in his hands and feet. Now 33, the American reflected on the confidence that wheelchair rugby has given him.

“It’s freeing in the way that when you get in the chair – which is like a little tank, quite frankly – you’re just able to move so effortlessly up and down the court. You’re gliding, you don’t feel limited by it. It allows you to excel, it allows you to compete, it allows you to be your most athletic, physical self out there. And that’s a really cool thing,” he said.

“You can sometimes feel lesser than, or limited by your disability. But in wheelchair rugby, your wheelchair is an asset. It’s part of you that you use to compete at the highest level. And so rugby has always been a place where I felt at home, and that’s been a very freeing feeling for me in terms of just being able to be my fullest self on the court.”

‘Murderball’ inspiration

Inspired by “Murderball,” the 2005 documentary film which followed the fortunes of the US wheelchair rugby team in the lead-up to the 2004 Paralympics, Aoki begged his parents to let him try out the sport.

“It probably wasn’t quite as harsh as I’ve made it sound sometimes, but as part of my disability, I injured myself fairly easily,” he said. “So there was definitely apprehension like, ‘Wow, we’re going to let him play the sport where he crashes into people?’

“But my mom has told me subsequently that a doctor said at one point that, ‘You can have your kid live in a glass bubble and he can just look at the world and see what’s going on but never actually get to be a part of it, or he can get out of it and he can go experience life and live it.’ She said that really resonated with her.

“Once I got out there, my mother, the sweet librarian, turned out to know a lot more curse words when I first got knocked over than I could have possibly imagined!”

His 2024 Paralympics only came to an end on Monday, but Aoki is already looking forward to Los Angeles 2028.

“The phrase once in a lifetime gets thrown around a lot, but a home Games is truly once in a lifetime,” he said. “There would be nothing sweeter than to get my first gold medal at home.

“I never stopped desiring to be the best of what I do. I love this sport so much. I have so much passion for it, so much energy, and quite frankly it’s so much fun. If it ever stops being fun, I’ll stop doing it.”

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