Paralympic Basketball rolls forward for Utahn in Tokyo

Women's Wheelchair Basketball in the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. Photo: ParalympicsGB

TOKYO, Japan. — Ali Ibanez of Utah, 21, born and raised in Salt Lake City, uses the aid of a wheelchair for mobility and is using the aid of her wheelchair to advance with her teammates through the brackets in Tokyo in the Paralympics.

Team USA Women’s Wheelchair Basketball has taken on the Nederlands in the prelims to whom they lost by ten. Went on to win handily over Spain, took an “L” from China by one point, and conquered Algeria putting more than double their points on the scoreboard. 

Against the athletes representing Spain, after the first 10 minute quarter, it was USA 18, Spain 11. USA is trying to replicate their Rio 2016 gold medal game. Ali first came on to the Paralympic court for this game halfway through the first when the USA was ahead two points. Leading scorer, now teammate, and ten year player on Team USA Rose Hallerman, said to Ibanez more than 15 years ago when Ibanez was a 14-year-old youngster with stars in her eyes for Paralympic United States Wheelchair Women’s Basketball,  “You’re gonna be good at this game one day,” a cherished memory meeting.   

32 to 20 at the half with USA up lead coach, Lawrence “Trooper” Johnson to say to NBC, which is broadcasting more than 1,000 hours of Paralympic coverage, that the fact the pandemic has kept all spectators out of Tokyo is “Perfect” for the experience of his predominantly inexperienced athletes in the world of international tournaments play, a label which includes Utah’s Ibanez in her Paralympic debut. He also said that as a result, the relative quiet inside the stadium is an asset to his team as they, “Thrive on verbal communication which is often hard to hear with cheering fans.”

Similarly, Chad Cohn, an athlete in Tokyo representing Team USA Men’s Wheelchair Rugby or “Murderball” said to NBC when asked after one of their multiple bracket wins, if  the lack of spectators due to COVID protocols was a hindrance to his sport, “Well, in adaptive sports, we’re pretty used to that being the status quo so, it’s actually more of a benefit as we feel more of a sense of normalcy this way which helps us play with more focus.”

Ibanez, the college senior, didn’t start the second half of the pool play game against Spain, wearing her mask on the sidelines along with all statisticians, coaching staff, and every non-active player courtside. The score was 53 to 31, USA, after the third quarter.

Then, yesterday, the women wheeled past Canada in the quarterfinals 63 – 48 eliminating one of their biggest competitors and medal contenders. USA will play China in the semis.

Wheelchair basketball’s rules and regulations are 90% the same as the able-bodied game and the venue is 100% the same. In Tokyo, the Paralympians play on the exact same court on which the Olympians played, same basket height, same three-point shot position, all of it.

Although this Tokyo venue remained, venue consolidation is what happens within the two weeks between every summer and winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. In Salt Lake 2002, Park City played host to not only Bobsled, Luge, Skeleton, Ski Jumping, and Nordic Combined events at the Utah Olympic Park (OUP) but Alpine Skiing at Deer Valley and Alpine Skiing and Snowboarding at Park City Mountain. For the Paralympics, not all the sport disciplines are contested thus not all the venues are utilized. In 2002, the Skiing events were all shifted over to Snowbasin and none of the aforementioned UOP events were contested.