London 2012: Paralympic 'Murderball' wheelchair rugby competition set to get underway

The British team are playing current world champions America, and it’s set to be a ferocious game, according to the Daily Mail. The sport allows wheels to be jammed deliberately with spikes, balls to be forced over the goal-line with battering rams, and barging so fierce that players are frequently thrown from their seats with bone-breaking force.

Kylie Grimes, 24 is Britain’s only female player and one of only two women taking part in the Paralympic rugby.  Six years ago she snapped her spine and was paralysed from the neck down when she dived into a shallow indoor swimming pool at her friend’s house.

Having attempted wheelchair racing and found it too painful, her therapists suggested she try ‘murderball’, as the chair is designed differently.

 ‘Kylie was hooked on the sport as soon as she saw it,’ says her mother, Karen McGhee. ‘At first I was nervous when I watched her, and she was sometimes thrown out of her chair. But now I don’t worry because, as she says, she has already broken her neck — so there’s not much worse that can happen, is there?’