Two years to go until LA28: USA stars Maclay and Aoki on competing at a home Games

To celebrate two years to go until the LA28 Paralympic Games, Team USA stars Kaleo Kanahele Maclay and Chuck Aoki joined a special Instagram live with @Paralympics on 15 August 2026.

Maclay, a three-time Paralympic sitting volleyball champion, and Aoki, a four-time wheelchair rugby medallist, discussed the road to LA28, the legacy they hope to leave and the moments that continue to inspire their careers.

Maclay recently led the USA to victory at the 2026 World ParaVolley Sitting Volleyball World Championships, building on the team’s historic third consecutive Paralympic gold at Paris 2024.

Aoki, the most decorated U.S. wheelchair rugby player, joined the live from Sao Paulo, Brazil, where the 2026 Wheelchair Rugby World Championship is currently taking place.

From the legacy to their personal goals, find out what Maclay and Aoki said about the LA28 Paralympics, which take place from 15-27 August: 

 

 

 

Both of you started your sport at a young age. What has it been like watching your sport grow?

Kaleo Kanahele Maclay:

Sitting volleyball has continued to grow drastically. It’s been really cool to be a part of that growth.

When I came on the team, we had never won gold. Our goal is to continue to raise the bar, what can sitting volleyball continue to be.

I love that our team gets to be a part of not only what’s happening now, but also the legacy we leave behind. To have the young girls on our team to come up in the same age that I was when I started, it has been incredible.

 

Chuck Aoki: 

My first ever international tournament was the first-ever American Zonal Championship. It was us, Canada, Brazil and Argentina. Brazil and Argentina were very new countries. To see our zone grow to six, seven or eight teams, to see that growth just in our own backyard, has been really incredible. 

The global growth has been amazing. It makes our job a little bit harder, of course, but it certainly has been great for the sport as a whole to see that growth.

 

 

 

Now that LA28 is just two years away, what does the road to the Games look like for you?

Chuck Aoki:

The time between Paris 2024 and LA28 is really two-year chunks. There was the two years to the World Championship and now the two years until LA. And so obviously we want to come here and perform very well at the World Championship. 

It's a challenge mentally as much as physically. In some ways the physical part is really easy. It's the mental challenge of doing this every single day and knowing that it's going to be two years before you see the payoff. 

We're going to play five matches in LA, and we're going to train for two years for five matches, which is kind of remarkable when you think about it. 

 

Kaleo Kanahele Maclay:

For us, what we talk about is that the Games is the peak. We want to peak at the Games. 

After the Games it kind of drops off. You get to have time off and then you just reset. The first two years are developmental. We're trying to grow the team, grow the sport, develop as much as possible, change whatever needs to be changed, and then come this like mile marker, which is World Championships. Then we start to build and like really go on track to hit our peak. 

We have a little break over like the holidays, but going up, it's really like we're back right now. We're at a training camp and it's cool to see just the fire of those who were at Worlds and those who didn't, and just wanting to gun towards LA.

It really is kind of like a nonstop journey. There are highs and lows, but it's just like continuing to trek going towards the goal.

 

 

 

What personal legacy would you like to leave through the LA28 Games? 

Kaleo Kanahele Maclay:

Personally with LA, I would love to leave the legacy of sitting volleyball and the legacy of this sport and the continuation of this sport. I think it is continuing to be such an elite level of volleyball that I think showing that to the US in the hope to get more athletes invested and a part of our program and a part of caring about sitting volleyball in general.

And then also, I think to like mothers in sport is super important to me, and our team has quite a few. Being able to show what you can do as a mom and after you have kids and leaving that legacy behind really is important to me.

 

Chuck Aoki: 

It's a legacy of: no matter what my body looks like, no matter what my body's been through, there is sport for me. There's activity for me.

I want every kid and honestly, even adult with disability, to have someone who looks like them that they can look up to. And it doesn't have to be me. It could be any number of our incredible Paralympic athletes, whether in this country or across the world. 

I always think back to I grew up, I didn't know a single Paralympic athlete. I never saw one on TV. I never saw in the media.

And so whether I can be that visible athlete through my competition, or whether it's me amplifying the other sports, and being the hype man for team USA, that's the legacy. 

There's a place for you to be active out there. In some ways LA28 is the culmination of all this, but it also hopefully is going to be a beginning to an entirely new world for people with disabilities in the United States.

 

 

 

 

 

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What does it mean to you to have the Paralympics in the USA?

Chuck Aoki: 

We haven't hosted a summer home Paralympics since 1996. It's just one of those things where the phrase ‘once in a lifetime’ gets thrown around a lot.

But this is once in a lifetime. This is a once in a lifetime chance to represent our country on home soil. I'm so excited because it's been great to compete and train. But more and more, it's just a fact that we are exposing our entire country to Para sport.

And you're going to have just hundreds, thousands of kids, adults who are like, oh, there's a sport out there for me. Whether it's wheelchair rugby, whether it's sitting volleyball, they're going to be like, oh my gosh, I can go do this and that. That excites me more than anything. 

 

Kaleo Kanahele Maclay:

Especially within our sport, a lot of our newer athletes has come from seeing us on TV or seeing us through social media, and I think that will only like get greater as the Games happen here.

And I'm so excited for not only the Games, but what's to come after the Games and to see the excitement around the Paralympics, the excitement around Para sport, how many new athletes come in. I think us being able to do that here is going to be so special.

Just to have our family so close and to be in a home crowd, like I remember in Rio, playing in front of like the Brazilians, it was insane. To have that energy here, I'm so stoked. And I like, like it makes me giddy just being so excited about it. But it gives me chills to just thinking about it.

 

Chuck Aoki: 

I think 99 per cent of my competitions have been played in another country. To actually have a crowd that's completely backing you truly just gives me chills just to think about it. 

 

 

 

What personal goals are you working toward ahead of LA28? 

Kaleo Kanahele Maclay:

I think a personal goal for myself is to just to continue to show up for myself and my team every day, every practice.

I think there's so much that can happen when you show up present and ready for whatever that looks like. 

A tagline our coaches have for these Games is make the impossible possible. That really comes from every day continuing to give it our best, and to hopefully get a four-peat in LA, but to just make the impossible possible.

 

Chuck Aoki: 

It’s about getting a little bit better every day and continue to be present in every moment. 

And then continuing to lead and be ready for the next generation, and making sure that we're setting a good foundation to go forward. 

And I guess LA28 will be here in a flash, so just trying to enjoy every moment of the ride to LA is going to be really special. And to just try to try to win that gold medal of that day.

 

 

Some quotes have been lightly edited for length and clarity while preserving the original meaning. Watch the full interview with Kaleo Kanahele Maclay and Chuck Aoki on our Instagram channel

 

Discover more about the LA28 Paralympic Games