USA Wheelchair Rugby Team Voted 'Athlete of the Month'

The USA Wheelchair Rugby Team which beat Australia to claim the 2010 Wheelchair Rugby World Championships in Canada have been awarded the International Paralympic Committee’s (IPC) ‘Athlete of the Month’ for September after winning a public vote.

It was the first time the IPC has asked the public to vote for the ‘Athlete of the Month’ and thousands did giving their opinion on which athlete or team they thought had put in the biggest or best performance in the last month.

The USA beat off stiff competition to be crowned ‘Athlete of the Month’ and were only a few votes ahead of US Open Wheelchair Men’s Double Final Winners Maikel Scheffers and Ronald Vink in second place.

Team USA’s success in Canada was their fourth world title in five World Championships, and the final against Australia was a rematch of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games.

The 57-45 final victory cemented USA’s place as the number one ranked team in the world and means they will start as overwhelming favourites to retain gold when they line up in London in less than two years time.

Other athletes shortlisted for September’s ‘Athlete of the Month’ included Swiss hand cyclist Ursula Schwaller who the Berlin Marathon, Italian Vittorio Podesta who claimed first place in the MH2 time trial at the International Para Clycling EHC Final in Luxembourg and Canadian sailor Paul Tingley who won the 2.4m World Championship Sailing in the Netherlands.