Minnesota Paralympian Chuck Aoki on silver medal win

CATHY WURZER: Team USA is bringing home a silver medal in the Paralympics with the help of Minneapolis native Chuck Aoki. The wheelchair rugby team lost to Japan 48-41 last night. Chuck is a cocaptain of the team and is now the most decorated Team USA wheelchair rugby athlete with three silvers and one bronze medal. Chuck is joining us live from Paris. Chuck, congratulations. Good to hear your voice.

CHUCK AOKI: Thank you so much. Yeah, it's been quite a ride. It's been quite a last 18 hours or so. But proud to have brought home a silver for Team USA.

CATHY WURZER: I had a chance to watch the replay. And wow, [LAUGHTER] that was a lot of action there. Tell me a little bit about defeating the defending Paralympic champions, Great Britain. And that was a tough match.

CHUCK AOKI: Yeah, it was. The thing everyone in wheelchair rugby have been talking about, this was the most competitive games we've ever had. I would say there was seven teams that could have legitimately medaled. And so to make it to the gold medal match was incredible. Yeah, it was a rematch against Great Britain, who defeated us a few years ago. A few players have retired from them. But still, it's always great to beat a great team.

They won their pool. They hadn't lost a single match until they played us. So it was great. And then, yeah, Japan, we just-- it was a really physical game. We just ran out of a little bit of steam against them. And they were just better that day.

CATHY WURZER: Mm-hmm. Wheelchair rugby is not for the faint of heart. It can be brutal-- you know that-- with the physical contact between wheelchairs. You played-- I clocked it-- 30 minutes of this 40-minute match. How did you-- how did you feel about how you did in the match? I mean, how do you feel?

CHUCK AOKI: Yeah, yeah. [LAUGHS] I feel OK. I'm tired, of course. We played five games in five days, which is quite physical. We're hoping they'll let us have an off day. Maybe next time in Los Angeles. But no, I feel really good. I think I trained my body to play that many minutes. That's kind of the way our team had talked about the strategy was going to be. So I was ready to go.

I worked as hard as I could. I think the reality is the human body, at some point, after getting ran into over and over and over again-- I like to say it's like having little mini car crashes for two hours straight. You get worn down. But overall, I'm pleased with my performance, pleased with how the team performed. We would have loved to come home with a gold medal, but silver is pretty sweet too.

CATHY WURZER: I liked how after the game all you held hands in a circle. Tell us about that moment.

CHUCK AOKI: Yeah. The team, we really take a lot of pride in being with each other through the ups, through the downs, the good, the bad. And we try to be a team that doesn't just talk about that but actually be about that. In that circle, in that moment, everyone was talking to each other. Everybody was picking each other up, hugging, a little bit of smiles with the tears, just because we care about each other.

We care about each other as rugby players, but more importantly, we genuinely care about each other as humans. I love all the guys and our gal, Sarah, as well, on the team. And so it's just one of those moments. Like, we obviously were disappointed in that moment but still proud of what the team had accomplished. Because making three straight Paralympic finals for the US is quite an achievement.

CATHY WURZER: It is. I'm glad you brought up Sarah, Sarah Adam. She's the first female woman to play on the US wheelchair rugby team. She's clearly a trailblazer. What's it like to watch her?

CHUCK AOKI: Oh, it's so fun to watch Sarah. And Sarah, she's so fast. She's so fluid on the court. It just looks effortless the way she pushes sometimes. Her rise has been amazing to watch. She's only been playing, I think, three years. I think she's only had her diagnosis for five or six. And so to watch her come on as fast as she did has been incredible. And then, really, to see women connecting with her and saying, wow, this is an amazing sport you play.

And she says, yeah, and you can, too, you know? People don't realize that wheelchair rugby is mixed-gendered. And I think Sarah is really helping to open, hopefully, thousands of young women and girls' eyes to, hey, this is a sport I could try. Why don't I go for it and mix it up with the boys? which Sarah does just as well.

CATHY WURZER: It's been interesting to also read your content on social media and that of the other Olympic athletes. Because you really have helped shine a light on your sport. Talk a little bit about, really, creating content that's paying off. Do you think it's raised the visibility of the Paralympics and these Paris Games?

CHUCK AOKI: I think so. Yeah, I really think so. I think that there's been-- there's a lot of other great content creators as well. I have to shout-out the Woodhalls, of course-- Hunter and Tara Davis. They're amazing in their content. But no, I really set out to say, hey, let's talk about Paralympics. And the reality is that I started talking about Paralympics during the Olympics, which was in no way to take anything away from the Olympics.

But just, this is when the most eyeballs are talking about some of these sports that we don't see as much, like track and field, and swimming, archery, rowing, et cetera. And so I was like, let's take this opportunity to really pump this up, talk about it, share it, get people excited. And we've seen it. We've had amazing crowds here over in Paris, sold out. Stade de France was sold out for track and field the other night.

I think it's been sold out almost every night. Our matches were sold out. And we're seeing people from all over the US talking about it, posting about it, watching it on NBC and Peacock and social media. So it's been really heartening to see. And yeah, hopefully I've been able to play some part in that role as a content creator. And I tell you what, I'm just going to keep doing it.

CATHY WURZER: I've really enjoyed watching on NBC and Peacock, by the way. And the archery, some of the other sports, I didn't get a chance to watch during the Olympic games in Paris. I'm now getting a chance to watch the Paralympics, which is fantastic. Are you done now? I mean, you posted, I think, that you might want to take another run in 2028?

CHUCK AOKI: Well, what I'll tell you is that I'm taking a month or two off to just relax, reset, refresh the body. And then I'm all eyes on LA. I'll be 37, which I think-- I can still do it, but-- I'm going to take one more run at it because I think-- I think having a run at home would be pretty darn sweet. So we're going to rest up, we're going to take a few breaths, and then we're going to get to work to try to win a gold on home soil because that'd be pretty special.

CATHY WURZER: 37 is prime-- your prime at 37. You can do it.

CHUCK AOKI: There we go.

CATHY WURZER: I know you can do it.

CHUCK AOKI: Exactly. [LAUGHTER]

CATHY WURZER: So you're in Paris. Do you have a chance to watch any of the other events? What are you looking forward to watching?

CHUCK AOKI: Yeah, I'm going to-- I'm actually going to be here for the rest of the Paralympics. I'm going to do some content creation with Team USA and get around. So yeah, I'm going to go see track and field. I'm going to see wheelchair basketball. Hopefully getting over to some goalball, a sport for the visually impaired. It's really interesting. Going to make my way to the track at some point. I think I said that.

Going to watch some swimming. I really want to go to as much as I possibly can, quite frankly, because it's all incredible to watch. So I'm going to be bouncing around. So if you follow me on social media, you're going to see all sorts of appearances of Chuck Aoki popping up different places.

CATHY WURZER: Well, I wish you well. Have a wonderful time. Thank you for taking the time to talk with us, and get a little rest along the way too.

CHUCK AOKI: Yeah, absolutely will do. I appreciate you guys having me.

CATHY WURZER: Thank you. Chuck Aoki, he's been with us, Minneapolis native and now a four-time Paralympic medalist, live from Paris. We appreciate him taking the time. And that was an incredible match. If you have an opportunity, you can probably watch it-- cable perhaps. As I say, Peacock has some of the replays. The wheelchair rugby team lost to Japan 48-41 last night, but it was one heck of a match.