 2016 Australian Paralympic team portrait of Scott | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nationality |  Australia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 3 March 1982 Brisbane | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Disability class | 0.5 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Ryan Scott, OAM (born 3 March 1982)[1] is a Paralympic wheelchair rugby competitor from Australia. In four Paralympics, Scott has won a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Paralympics and gold medals at the 2012 London and 2016 Rio Paralympics.[2]
Scott was born on 3 March 1982. On 6 June 1998 as a 16-year-old, he became a quadriplegic due to a car crash on a country road en route to Victor Harbor, South Australia.[3][1][4] At the time of the accident, he was a year 11 student at Willunga High School.[3] The accident left Scott paralysed from his chest down but he has some movement in his shoulders, back, biceps and forearms.[3] He moved to Brisbane from Adelaide in 2009 due to the warm weather and due to Queensland having a good wheelchair rugby program.[5]
Scott took up wheelchair rugby as part of his rehabilitation. Scott said "I always loved sport and participated in all kinds of sport – soccer, basketball, Aussie rules, pretty much every sport except able-bodied rugby. As a quadriplegic, I didn’t have the upper-body strength to play wheelchair basketball. When I saw wheelchair rugby, that’s when I thought that sport was still possible."[3] Scott made his debut for the Australian team 'Steelers' in August 2001.[4] He was a member of the Steelers that came fifth at the 2004 Athens Paralympics.[4] He won a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Games in the mixed wheelchair rugby event.[6] He won a gold medal at the 2012 London Games in the mixed wheelchair rugby event.[6]
He was a member of the Steelers that finished with the silver medal at the 2010 World Championships and gold medal at the 2014 World Wheelchair Rugby Championships at Odense, Denmark.[7]
Scott captained the Australian team that retained its gold medal at the 2016 Rio Paralympics after defeating the United States 59–58 in the final.[8]
At the 2018 World Championships in Sydney, he was a member of the Australian team that won the silver medal after being defeated by Japan 61–62 in the gold medal game.[9]
During his career he was co-captain and captain of the Steelers (2012–2016)[4] and played for the Suncorp Queensland Cyclones in the Wheelchair Rugby National League.[10]
Scott said "because of wheelchair rugby I’ve been able to travel the world playing a team sport, I have represented my county at three Paralympic Games, which is huge. It has also made me a much more independent person."[5]
In September 2018, after 288 Steelers games, he announced his retirement from international wheelchair rugby.[11]
