For these basketball players, it’s more than a game Posted on May 22nd
Diamond and the other students sped through the Chatham neighborhood school’s small gymnasium, their metal wheelchairs banging off each other as they learned the skills involved in wheelchair basketball.
The game was part of a weeklong series of events held in Chicago schools to drum up support for the city’s bid to host the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
For Diamond, who has spina bifida and has used a wheelchair all her life, it’s important to make the tough plays and let classmates without such limitations know what she and other disabled students go through.
“It makes me feel like we are getting equal. Some of my friends have never seen me play basketball,” said Diamond, 13. “It’s good to do things that I thought I never could.”
Neil School was chosen for the Paralympics event because the school opened in 1955 to serve students with special needs. Seventh grader Christian Harris, who drew a whistle from a referee for putting his feet on the ground as he scrambled for a loose ball, said playing wheelchair basketball helped him understand peers with disabilities.
“When I was in the wheelchair playing basketball, I was thinking that it could have been me that was paralyzed,” said Christian, 13. “I have the most respect for people now.”
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