Wheelchair basketball

Wheelchair basketball was one of the foundation sports at the first Paralympic Games in Rome, 1960.

Wheelchair basketball is open to athletes with a physical impairment. It is played indoors on a regulation basketball court. Players are assigned a point value from 1.0 to 4.5 depending on their level of impairment. Teams consistent of 5 players and must not exceed at total of 14.0 points on the court at any one time.

For more information on Wheelchair basketball Eligibility and How to Get Involved please see the Wheelchair basketball Information Sheet (PDF – 90KB) – updated May 2024.

Medal History

2024Paris
000
0
2020Tokyo
000
0
2016Rio de Janeiro
000
0
2012London
020
2
2008Beijing
101
2
2004Athens
020
2
2000Sydney
010
1
1996Atlanta
100
1
1992Barcelona - Madrid
000
0
1988Seoul
000
0
1984New York & Stoke Mandeville
000
0
1980Arnhem
000
0
1976Toronto
000
0
1972Heidelberg
000
0
1968Tel Aviv
000
0
1964Tokyo
000
0
1960Rome
000
0

Events and Disciplines

Men’s 12-team and women’s 10-team tournaments are contested at the Paralympic Games.

Teams are drawn into two pools and the four highest placed teams in each group progress to the quarter-finals.

Classification

Wheelchair basketball is open to athletes with a physical impairment. Athletes are required to submit medical reports and meet the minimum impairment criteria in order to compete. Eligibility is determine by trained Classifiers.

For more information on Eligible Impairments and Classification please see the Wheelchair basketball Information Sheet (PDF – 132KB) – updated August 2022.

Rules and Equipment

Court
The field of play in wheelchair basketball is the same as Olympic basketball. It is 28 metres long and 15 metres wide, and for official national and international matches, a wooden floor is required.

Ball
The ball must be an approved single shade of orange with eight traditionally shaped panels and black seams. The outer surface is made of leather, synthetic leather, rubber or another synthetic material. Its circumference may be anywhere between 74.9cm and 78cm, and weigh 567 grams to 650 grams.

Wheelchair
The wheelchair has either three or four wheels – two large wheels at the back and one or two small wheels at the front. It may also have one or two anti-tip devices that use no more than two small castors attached to either the frame or rear axle. The tyres may be any colour as long as they do not mark the floor. All competition chairs must meet the specifications set by the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation.

CONTACTS

We encourage those wishing to explore wheelchair basketball to contact their state federation in the first instance. The national federation link below provides information on the national high performance program leading to competing internationally and at the Paralympic Games.

National Federation
	Organisation	Website
	Basketball Australia	australia.basketball
State Federations
State	Organisation	Website
ACT	Basketball ACT	basketballact.com.au
NSW	Basketball NSW	bnsw.com.au
NT	Basketball NT	bit.ly/Basketball-NT
QLD	Basketball QLD	queensland.basketball/
SA	Basketball SA	basketballsa.com.au
TAS	Basketball TAS	basketballtasmania.com.au
VIC	Basketball VIC	basketballvictoria.com.au
WA	Basketball WA	basketballwa.asn.au