The U.S. wheelchair rugby team is training at Lakeshore’s facility in Birmingham.
They are preparing for the Paralympics in Tokyo. The team is practicing this month until June 21. They will return for one more session in August.
James Gumbert is the head coach for the U.S. wheelchair rugby team. Gumbert said that the players are working on fine tuning their skills.
“We understand who we are as a team, but now we’re – I call it ‘polish’– We’re putting polish on," he said, "finding those nuggets where we could get one point here, or one point there and working on team management.”
Less than 3% of Japan’s population has been vaccinated and some worry the Tokyo games could cause a rise in infections. Gumbert said COVID-19 is a concern, but the team’s main focus is their performance.
“So there’s always this concern. The things that we’re trying to focus on at this point are controlling the things that we can control,” he said.
Gumbert said the team is fully vaccinated. The Tokyo Paralympics are scheduled to take place Aug. 24 through Sept. 5.
