30
Hamilton, OH
University of Arizona
Classification: 1.5
Travis Baker grew up in Hamilton, Ohio, playing multiple sports including baseball, basketball, football and wrestling.
A year after graduating from high school, while traveling home from Cedar Point amusement park with his cousin and friends, an erratic driver hit their car. The accident caused severe vertebrae damage for Baker, resulting in paraplegia. After his accident, Baker took up various sports including hand cycling and swimming as part of his recovery.
In 2017, Baker started playing wheelchair rugby and would play the sport while attending Arizona, the first university to sponsor a collegiate wheelchair rugby program. In 2022, he represented Team USA at the World Games in Birmingham, Alabama, in low point wheelchair rugby (the sport features only players with classifications from 0.5 to 1.5) and then made the U.S. national rugby team training roster the following year.
Baker suited up for U.S. Wheelchair Rugby Team at the 2025 WWR Americas Championships, where the U.S. defeated Brazil to win the title.
Baker has always enjoyed lifting and working out and graduated from Arizona with a degree in nutritional sciences with an emphasis on dietetics.
Bryan Kirkland had always been an athlete. Growing up in Alabama, he was the kind of competitor who couldn’t stay away from a field or a court. Football, basketball, track — if there was a game, he played it. And if it were a contact sport, he thrived ...
PARIS – It wasn’t the fairy tale ending that they had envisioned.Team USA wheelchair rugby bowed to an opportunistic Japanese team in the gold medal contest, 48-41, on Monday night at the Champs-de-Mars Arena. Despite the painful defeat, the U.S. perfo...
PARIS – Double teamed and banged around by aggressive British opponents, Chuck Aoki remained poised, delivering a perfectly timed and well-executed pass downcourt to his streaking teammate Sarah Adam, who cruised home for a pivotal try. It was a dagger...
The 18-year-old helped the U.S. win gold at the 2023 Parapan American Games, which secured the team’s spot in Paris.
Chuck Aoki is on a mission to help bring home a gold medal in Paris.
