London Paralympics: Wheelchair Basketball

The London 2012 Paralympics Basketball competition promises to pull in the crowds at the Olympic Park's Basketball Arena and the North Greenwich Arena in the River Zone from Thursday 30 August to Saturday 8 September. Wheelchair Basketball is one of the most popular of Paralympic sports and is played in 80 countries throughout the world. The rules are very similar to that of regular Basketball: the court is the same size, the basket the same height, and the scoring system identical. Like in Basketball, players cannot "travel" with the ball, and must bounce or throw the ball after every two pushes of the wheels of their specially-designed titanium chairs (which can costs up to a staggering ?3,500). Five players from a squad of 12 are on court at any one time, and each player has a point value corresponding to their impairment and functional ability (1.0 to 4.5). During play, the total on-court value for each team of five players may not exceed 14. A round-robin group preliminary stage will be split between the Basketball Arena and the North Greenwich Arena, before the larger North Greenwich Arena hosts all knock-out and medal games. Wheelchair Basketball has been a Paralympic sport since the first Games in Rome 1960, with the women's event arriving eight years later in Tel Aviv.