Wheelchair rugby is a full contact Paralympic team sport played indoors on a basketball court. According to the Wheel Blacks website (2018), this sport is also known as quad rugby and was created in 1976 by five Canadian wheelchair athletes. However, the first organized games were played in Wales as early as 1960. The International Federation of Wheelchair and Amputee Sports (IWAS) explains that the first international tournament took place in 1989 in Toronto, Canada, with teams from Canada , United States and Great Britain. We say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay The IWAS (2018) also states that the sport was originally created to be played by tetraplegics (quadriplegics), but, nowadays, there are many players with other disabilities who play wheelchair rugby . The Wheel Blacks website explains that to be eligible to play, athletes must have a loss of function in at least three limbs and must go through a classification process to determine whether they can officially play the sport. According to the Wheel Blacks website, Wheelchair Rugby is a mixed team sport for male and female athletes and combines elements of many sports, including basketball, rugby and ice hockey. According to the International Wheelchair Rugby Federation (IWRF) (2018): “players compete in teams of four to get the ball over the opposing team's goal line”. As in Rugby, this is a full-contact sport where wheelchair contact is an integral part of the game and athletes constantly use their chairs to hold and block opponents, according to the Wheel Blacks website. The official website of the Paralympics explains that, Nowadays, 29 compete in this Paralympic sport and there are more than ten national programs in development. Due to the impact of wheelchairs, players can often injure themselves, with fractured bones and muscles, according to the Wheel Blacks website. “The equipment used by players is designed to reduce the risk of injury and rules are in place to make playing the game as safe as possible.” (Wheel Blacks, 2018). Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a custom essay The Wheel Blacks, New Zealand's national wheelchair rugby team, are participating in a qualifying tournament for the IWRF World Championship. The tournament will be held in Switzerland and will begin in April this year. Since the team does not receive any kind of government aid, other than the loan of the training building, it depends on donations and sponsorships. In this report a strategic marketing plan for the Wheel Blacks will be developed in the run-up to these games, from 8 February to 1 April.