welcome back may is Asian-American and Pacific Islander heritage month it's a time for celebrating the rich history and culture of tens of millions of Americans that includes my next guest he is a three-time par Olympic medalist for Team USA in 2012 he won bronze and in both 2016 and 2020 he won silver this year he hopes to win gold in Paris his sport wheelchair rugby better known as murder ball which is the greatest name ever for a sport please welcome Chuck [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Aoki this is so cool you are badass oh I appreciate that thank you are so badass so wait explain for people that aren't aware like what how explain the sport yeah so like you said it's called murderball affectionately referred to as wheelchair rugby so when you first see it you're going to see people in these tank like wheelchairs like this wheelchair in weighs about 20 lb those weigh about 45 lb they're literally built for combat to smash into each other knock each other around but the more you watch it and sort of the more you see it develop and kind of understand what's going on there's actually a lot of tactics to it so it's not just why did Chuck just fly into that guy it's like no there's actually strategy and reasoning behind why we do it yeah so I like to say it's sort of highspeed chest bumper cars it's a mix of everything yes yeah so it's remarkable you can't actually feel the ball right like other people right right correct yeah I have my disability essentially I have no Sensation from my elbows down and my knees down and so I've had that since I was born um obviously very challenging up but I was a very active kid um and so my parents are like well yeah you're going have to use a wheelchair but you're still going to have to stay out there and be active so yeah I can't feel by hands but I've developed a lot of we'll call them sort of superpowers a result I've got very good hand eye coordination so I like to say if I can see it I can catch it if I can't see it a little bit more of a struggle but you find your way I keep my eyes open when I play cuz believe it or not in Murder ball you have to keep your eyes open yeah it seems like a poor to close them it's a little scary never played but I feel like you should keep you have to try sometime oh my God I would not be good cuz if you have to have arms like that I'm out um so how did you get into this sport though how did you find out yeah so I'm originally from Minnesota I grew up going to this place called uh the Courage Center it's where I did my rehab and kind of learned how to be active and stuff and so I started both wheelchair basketball sport I loved a lot had a really good time playing it met a lot of friends but then I was uh 15 years old and I saw this movie called Murder ball yeah and I was like oh my God they're crashing each other they're talking trash this looks amazing I want to play that Sport and my parents like well I'm not so sure about that but I basically went to a practice I got absolutely beat up for an hour and a half straight and I fell in love with it as naturally goes boys and girls are so different you know well as I mentioned earlier it's aapi Heritage Month in 2021 Chuck was a flag Bear for the Tokyo par Olympics representing Team USA so why was that moment significant for you yeah that moment you know really meant a lot lot to me uh growing up honestly I didn't identify much with my Asian Heritage and it's because my grandparents great-grandparents great uncles all those people were actually interned uh during World War II uh by this country as a result and so you know they were interned and obviously got out and really my my father and they didn't really want to identify with that Heritage much because they were bullied for it they were made fun of for it they were seen as still this this enemy this other being and so come Tokyo the games are there that's of course my family's from it was this moment to say no like I'm going to embrace this and you know to then go from this country being you know locking up my my my ancestors to now I'm leading out Team USA on the grandest stage of the mall was really just an amazing story to sort of come full circle and I'm looking forward to doing it more going forward oh my God yeah you did it okay that was really everybody you can catch the par Olympics in Paris beginning August 28th on NBC and peacock good luck I'm rooting for you [Music] thank you guys so much