Auburn coach to head wheelchair basketball Paralympic team in Paris

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Auburn coach to head wheelchair basketball Paralympic team in Paris

Olivia Yepez

3–4 minutes

AUBURN, Ga. (WRBL) — An Auburn University coach flies to Paris this weekend ahead of the 2024 Paralympic Games. His team could make history.

Robb Taylor, Auburn’s wheelchair basketball head coach, will lead the Team USA Paralympic men’s wheelchair basketball team in competitions which begin Aug. 29 with a game against Spain.

“There’s high expectation of our team this year,” said Taylor, who has coached at three previous Paralympic Games and became head coach of Team USA basketball in January 2022.

After winning two straight Paralympic gold medals at the 2016 Games in Rio and 2020 Tokyo Games, Team USA’s men’s wheelchair basketball team is headed to Paris with hopes of becoming the first team in history to win three consecutive gold medals in the sport.

Coming off gold medals at the 2022 Americas Cup, 2023 World Championship and 2023 Parapan American Games, Taylor knows his team has all eyes on them.

Taylor said, “We know going in that things are going to be tough and things are going to be difficult and we’re looking forward to that challenge.”

Taylor became head coach for Team USA wheelchair basketball in 2022. (Robb Taylor)

Taylor became head coach for Team USA wheelchair basketball in 2022. (Robb Taylor)

Taylor, who has coached Paralympic teams since 2005, was named Team USA’s men’s wheelchair basketball head coach in January 2022 after dominant seasons as an assistant coach with previous Paralympic Teams.

An able-bodied individual, Taylor was first introduced to wheelchair basketball by an uncle with polio who is an avid-wheelchair basketball player. After joining the community 25 years ago, Taylor is passionate about coaching and bringing visibility to adaptive sports.

In 2016, Taylor was selected to coach at Auburn, in part due to his previous success as an assistant coach on multiple Paralympic teams. Although none of his student-athletes have competed at the Paralympic level, Taylor’s athletes are high-caliber.

“We’ve got a number of student athletes here that are part of the under-23 U.S. team and will be trying out for the under-23 team later this year,” Taylor said of his Auburn athletes, some of which were already on the court practicing before the official start of the semester.

Taylor said those will be players to keep eyes on as potentials for the for the L.A. 2028 Paralympic Games or the Brisbane 2032 Games.

The wheelchair basketball coach is looking toward a possible national championship win with Auburn this season. Before that happens, he and his Paralympic team will be playing for gold in Paris.