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Robyn Lambird looks back fondly on her time playing wheelchair basketball. She’s rightfully proud also of winning a Paralympic bronze medal in athletics. Yet, when she considered which sport best suited her personality and her impairment, wheelchair rugby was the winner.
Lambird, who has cerebral palsy (CP), is one of the up-and-coming players vying for a spot on the Australian Team at the Paris Paralympics next year. She is classified as a 3-point player and earns the team the 0.5 bonus that applies to female players.
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“I play an in-between role, between a midpoint and a high point player,” Lambird said.
“If I’m playing with someone like Bondy [Chris Bond] or Ryley [Batt], who are both 3.5s, I’m just trying to be that secondary ball carrier and also trying to screen for them. In the development squad I play more of a three-point or high-point role, being one of the main ball carriers and trying to be a bit more aggressive.
“I think at the moment in Australia we’re seeing mainly midpointers with CP coming through the development program. But CP is a wide ranging impairment so players can play lots of different roles.”
Wheelchair rugby began as a sport for athletes with a spinal cord injury. However, it has since become open to athletes with CP and those with limb deficiency. The only caveat is that an athlete’s impairment must affect all four limbs.
“I started off playing wheelchair basketball,” Lambird said. “I loved it and played at a junior state level, but I did find it difficult with hand function.
“The West Coast Enforcers would be rugby training on the court next door and always thought it looked really cool. I just liked the aggression and the crashing and all that sort of stuff. I was drawn to it so I just went over and started training and playing with them.
“Once I started playing I was like, ‘Oh, this actually works a lot better for me than basketball’.”
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Lambird’s pathway soon changed again when she was invited to a Rebound WA (formerly WA Wheelchair Sports) come-and-try event for athletics and was told she had the potential to compete at the Tokyo Paralympics.
“That opportunity was something I didn’t want to pass up,” she said. “So I committed myself to that for a while, did the Paralympics and Comm Games, and have now moved back over to rugby.
“Rugby was the sport I was always super keen on and super passionate about. It was a pretty easy decision to go back.”
Apart from moving from a low-point role in basketball to a high-point role in rugby, Lambird said the camaraderie currently among the Steelers’ group is especially strong.
“I think because we’ve all been through something and had to sort of come to the other side of that, everyone just wants to see you do well. We’re always helping each other out.
“Often when you first come into Para-sports, basketball tends to be the big one and a lot of people get drawn to it. I really enjoyed playing basketball, but I think it’s good to know that there are other options that might fit your impairment type better.”
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By: David Sygall, Paralympics Australia
Posted: 6 June 2023
