U-M Staff Member and Paralympic Wheelchair Rugby Co-Captain Chuck Aoki is Off to Compete in Paris

Published: Aug 18, 2024 Duration: 00:02:15 Category: Education

Tags : usa team usa Rugby 2024 Paralympic Games Wheelchair Rugby Adaptive Sports go blue u-m Chuck Aoki

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- My name is Chuck Aoki. I'm a four-time Paralympian in the sport of wheelchair rugby, and I work at the University of Michigan in the Adaptive Sports and Fitness Department as a community access navigator. Adaptive sports are really for everyone. People don't always know that they're eligible for it or they can participate in it. And so seeing that growth really just tells me that we're showing so many people that sports are for you. This is something you can be a part of. And to be able to do that at a incredible university like Michigan is really, really special. So, very quick backstory. I grew up playing wheelchair basketball. I love that spot a lot, but it was in 2005, this documentary called Murder Ball Came Out, which is the former name of wheelchair rugby. So I saw this movie and as a 15-year-old kid, I saw people smashing into each other and crashing going, flying like that looks awesome. So I literally just showed up to a practice one day. I was five foot two, probably weighed 120 pounds. And so I promptly was beat up and sent flying and crashed into walls and tipped over for about two hours straight. And at the end of it I was in love with it. And then I went to the University of Arizona and I got, I started playing down there and really learned from a lot of athletes there and kind of got mentored on what it meant to be an elite level athlete. And so I made my first Paralympic team in 2012, which was really just an amazing, you know, incredible experience that I never dreamed of. I cried tears of joy for the first time in my life and, you know, we took bronze at those games. As I look back on it now, 12 years later, it was an amazing experience. But, you know, I'm a competitor at heart and I want to be the best, I want to keep striving to be the absolute best I can be. So I've added two more silver medals to the collection, which are, again, incredible accomplishments. But, you know, it leaves me wanting that little bit more. And so, you know, the journey started a long, long time ago, but I still love the sport as much as I did that very first day. And I'm gonna keep playing it as long as I love it that much. It means the world to me to be going to my fourth Paralympics. You know, I think when I first heard of the Paralympics as a kid, it was like, oh, that sounds like something that's pretty cool. But I couldn't do that. And to know I'm going back for the fourth time is, it's surreal. You know, it means, it means so much. And to be going as a co-captain also means a lot. You know, I've always tried to hold myself to a high standard, hold our teammates to a high standard, but also lift up those around me. We try not to overly focus on just gold, gold, gold, because that's, that's an outcome. You wanna focus on the process, but we wanna have a gold medal process preparation. And I know we've done that and, you know, hopefully we're gonna go take care business.

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