James
McQuillan

In less than a year, James McQuillan went from never having played wheelchair rugby to representing his country at a world championship.

James grew up on a dairy farm near the country Victoria town of Echuca.

In 2014, aged 20, James fractured his C5 vertebrae playing country AFL. He spent five days in intensive care, before being placed in an induced coma and airlifted to Melbourne’s Austin hospital for a month. He spent 11 more months at the Royal Talbot rehabilitation centre.

To get back involved in team sport James reached out to Jason Lees, who was running the Melbourne wheelchair rugby competition. He encouraged James to come and train with the Australian squad in 2021.

He went from watching the team compete in the Tokyo 2020 games, to debuting for the Steelers 11 months later in Denmark. The Steelers went on to win the World Championships.

He has a 0.5 classification in wheelchair rugby, and also plays for Victoria Protect Thunder and the Melbourne Rugby Club.