Matt Sealy (born 21 June 1982) is a British wheelchair basketball player. He was selected to play for Team GB in the

2012 Summer Paralympics The 2012 Summer Paralympics, branded as the London 2012 Paralympic Games, were an international multi-sport parasports event held from 29 August to 9 September 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. They were the 14th Summer Paralympic Gam ...

in London.

Personal life

Sealy was born on 21 June 1982 in Toronto, Canada. He currently lives in

Maidenhead Maidenhead is a market town in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in the county of Berkshire, England, on the southwestern bank of the River Thames. It had an estimated population of 70,374 and forms part of the border with southern Bu ...

Berkshire Berkshire ( ; in the 17th century sometimes spelt phonetically as Barkeshire; abbreviated Berks.) is a historic county in South East England. One of the home counties, Berkshire was recognised by Queen Elizabeth II as the Royal County of Berk ...

. He became a

paraplegic Paraplegia, or paraparesis, is an impairment in motor or sensory function of the lower extremities. The word comes from Ionic Greek () "half-stricken". It is usually caused by spinal cord injury or a congenital condition that affects the neural ...

in 1985 after a car accident.

Wheelchair basketball

He was introduced to wheelchair basketball by his mother, when she took him to a National Junior Games taster session in

Stoke Mandeville Stoke Mandeville is a village and civil parish in the Vale of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, England. It is located three miles (4.9 km) from Aylesbury and 3.4 miles (5.5 km) from the market town of Wendover. Although a separate civil p ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-ea ...

in 1993. Since then, he has played wheelchair basketball for over seventeen years. He is classed as a 2.0 wheelchair basketball player. He once played for an Italian wheelchair basketball squad. He spent twelve years with Super League Club Aces. He helped this team win gold in the Super Wheelchair Basketball League Cup. He has represented Great Britain under 22s ( Team GB under 22s) in two European Championships. He made his official Great Britain debut at the

BT Paralympic World Cup The Paralympic World Cup is an annual international multi-sport event for elite athletes with a disability, that has been hosted in Manchester, England, since 2005. It is organized by the British Paralympic Association (BPA) in coordination wit ...

in 2006. Since then, he has played in European Championship and World Championship matches for Great Britain. Despite his long career, Sealy has only competed in three championships as a senior. The first was the 2009 European Championships, held in Adana, an agricultural city in southern Turkey. In this event, he won a bronze medal; coming third place, along with the British team. In 2010, he played in the 2010 World Wheelchair Basketball Championships, held on home soil in Birmingham, England. However, the team finished in fifth place in this event. In 2011, he was in the 2011 European Championships, held in

Nazareth Nazareth ( ; ar, النَّاصِرَة, ''an-Nāṣira''; he, נָצְרַת, ''Nāṣəraṯ''; arc, ܢܨܪܬ, ''Naṣrath'') is the largest city in the Northern District of Israel. Nazareth is known as "the Arab capital of Israel". In ...

, northern Israel. This match saw a victory for Sealy and his team.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sealy, Matt 1982 births Living people British men's wheelchair basketball players Wheelchair basketball players at the 2012 Summer Paralympics Paralympic wheelchair basketball players of Great Britain