I’m Sarah Adam. I play wheelchair rugby for Team USA. My name's Kurahashi Kae and I play wheelchair rugby
for the Japanese national team. Wheelchair
rugby is one of the only mixed gender sports in the Paralympics,
so men are competing alongside women. Being selected
as the first female to represent Team USA for wheelchair rugby
in a Paralympic Games. has been an incredible honour. It's something I worked really hard for,
to be able to be a really relevant person on that court for Team USA and seen
as any other athlete alongside my teammates has been an important part
for me. The fact that women and men play together in wheelchair rugby isn't a big concern for me. In fact one of the sport's most appealing aspects, in my opinion
is that men and women can compete on the same court. Whether it's our sport or others
that are deemed, you know, stereotypically male dominated. I think we're seeing this movement
where, you know, if this is a sport that you want to play,
whether it's typically considered male dominated, if you enjoy it, go do it. By me playing wheelchair rugby I hope to spark interest in the sport among many people,
I hope more people will see the sport and enjoy it. It would be wonderful to see an increase
in the number of players. There is still only a few female players in Japan. So I hope more women
take up the sport so we can enjoy it together. Honestly, I really enjoy it. Being a mixed gender sport,
I think there's a lot of women that feel the same way. We enjoy the physicality,
we enjoy the camaraderie and the culture, and there's something exciting
about what we add and the value that we add on the court. As females in the sport. Mixed gender events like this are really fun,
but I have also played in the women’s cup. And I found that playing with only women.
Was great as well. So competing in the women’s only team, could be an option in the future. There are many different things that could happen in our sport, I just hope that wheelchair rugby becomes more popular. That's what I'm really
hoping for.