Turned my life around

wheelchair rugby had a good profile in New Zealand. I found when I went out now, ‘Joe Public’ would treat me different when I said, ‘‘I played wheelchair rugby’’. Instantly you can see people look at you with less pity and more, ‘‘you’re tough and strong’’.

I played my first New Zealand nationals in 2002. I must have done all right at the nationals because by the next year Sharman – now the coach of the Wheel Blacks – asked me to come to training camps for the Wheel Blacks.

I tried to sponge up every bit of information I could. I had to learn the intricacies of screening and blocking, tactics, game management, but the most lifechanging learnings came off the court. We were a fully funded programme and had access to nutritional advice, and sports psychology. These things still live with me today. They have kept me healthy and well.

However, the most important learning I had was rooming with team-mates. This was where I learnt to live well in a wheelchair. The people you room with have years of lived experience and know all the techniques to dressing, cooking, wheelchair skills, bowel and bladder care. Transferring from bed to wheelchair, wheelchair to car. These things are passed down from old athlete to new. There is no better environment to do this – and this is how wheelchair rugby changed my life.

With this confidence I felt less dependent. I could do more. I felt confident enough to ask a girl out on a date. That girl, Rebecca, is now my wife of 13 years.

After my first Wheel Blacks camp I left with a training programme. I was soon a carded athlete with the New Zealand Academy of Sport. I started travelling with the Wheel Blacks in the build up to the Athens 2004 Paralympics. I was still very much on the fringe of the team. We went places like Sydney, Cairns, Alabama, Tampa Bay. My training schedule was six days a week, often with two sessions a day. I was pushing a chair from end to end of the basketball court in a tick under 20 seconds. In my mind I would train and push myself to be not only the fastest 1.0-point player to the world, but I wanted to be as fast as 2.0-point players.

The announcement for the team to go to Athens 2004 Paralympics came via a phone call from the coach. The best part for me was telling my friends and family and seeing their pride in me. I went from Jai ‘who had an accident’, to Jai ‘the Paralympian’.

We left in August, spent a week outside of Athens acclimatising to the Greek autumn weather in a camp with most of the New Zealand Paralympic team. We entered the games village about three days before the opening ceremony. The village was cool.

The opening ceremony opens your eyes to the scale of the Paralympics. 60,000 people sitting and clapping in the athletes.

Wheelchair rugby competition started in the second week. We came into the Paralympic Games ranked fifth in the world. The

USA had won every Paralympic Games gold since wheelchair rugby was introduced and were expected to win again. Over a fiveday schedule we played a game a day working our way to the final. I was still the understudy to Bill Oughton, our leading 1.0, so my game time was limited but I played the role of sub the best way to support my team.

We rolled onto the court September 25, 2004 for the final against Canada. In the crowd I had Rebecca and my mates who had supported me through my rehab. My parents and family were back home watching on TV. After a tightly fought match we won the game 31-29, still New Zealand Wheelchair Rugby’s greatest day.

I remember rolling onto the dais, receiving my medal and the sense of pride as they played New Zealand’s anthem.

What we had just achieved didn’t really hit me until we were riding back to the village on the bus and the motorway lights were flashing by. I thought about myself four years earlier riding in the back of an ambulance having broken my neck looking at those same lights flashing by; now, 4 years later, I was riding through Athens with a gold medal round my neck.

After the winning the gold I received a Prime Minister’s Scholarship, gained a postgraduate diploma in multimedia and have been a documentary editor now for 15 years. I went to the Beijing 2008 Paralympics, we won silver at the 2006 world championships, travelled the world with the Wheel Blacks for seven more years. I got married in 2007, and we now have two girls, Emily and Claire.

My life would have been completely different had I not found wheelchair rugby. I have met some great people in the sport, and I have some lifelong friends who I’m proud to call my mates.

Sport is often quantified by results like medals, but I believe the true success is the impact it has on your character and the life skills I carry with me today.