Wheelchair Rugby: The Lily-Livered Needn’t Apply 

Originally called Murderball, this mixed-team Paralympic sport combines elements of rugby, basketball, handball and what appears to be mindless violence. Competing in teams of four, the object of the game is to carry the ball across the opposing team’s goal line. Contact is encouraged as participants use their specifically-designed wheelchairs to block and hold opponents, causing almost-certain injury in the process.

To be eligible to play, you must have a disability that affects the arms and legs, and essentially be double-hard. Although each player is assigned a classification level based on their disability, teams include players with mixed classifications, allowing different functional abilities to come together. Similarly, the sport is open to men and women to compete on the same teams, although quite why they’d want to is another story.

You can begin playing in any manual wheelchair, but as you progress the game gets easier with a lightweight sports wheelchair. The game uses a white ball (don’t worry, it’s “wipe-clean”) and is played on a regulation-sized basketball court, marked out with cones as the goal lines.

This is an extremely hardcore sport: elite players are known to replace their chairs every year due to the damage suffered during the game.

☛ More Rugby: Slow Motion Unicycle Rugby