It's one sport in which the abilities of paralyzed athletes are not so far apart from those of other players. Paralyzed in a car accident 26 years ago, Shapiro hasn't let his injuries slow him. He competes in two or three tennis tournaments every year. But tennis has remained a hobby for Shapiro, who has a business to run and a wife and two adolescent boys at home. Other disabled athletes, like Malcom, enjoy the recreation but thrive on competition.
Players have to be impaired in at least three limbs to qualify.
Playing on a basketball court with a volleyball, competitors square off in teams of four and try to ram their way across a goal line in wheelchairs reinforced to take extra punishment. The game is meant to be physical. In addition to playing on a nationally ranked quad rugby team seven months out of the year, Malcom is training to race in the 2000 Paralympics in Sydney, Australia. Mr. Malcom has come a long way from his first encounter with paralyzed athletes seven years ago. It was while he was undergoing rehabilitation in Atlanta's Shepherd Spinal Center.