Meet the inspiring LGBTQ+ stars of the US women’s wheelchair basketball Paralympics team
The US women’s wheelchair basketball team won a bronze medal at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics. (Getty)
The Paralympics are underway in Paris and, as ever, we’re rooting for Team LGBTQ+ rather than any specific country: and the US women’s wheelchair basketball team are a fabulous example of queer representation.
The US women’s wheelchair basketball Paralympics team has at least three LGBTQ+ athletes as well as a gay head coach – Desi Miller, and the team have been widely tipped to win gold in Paris, not least because Eaton and Ryan were members of the team that won a bronze medal in Tokyo: so they clearly have mad skills.
Here’s everything we know about this inspiring group of talented women.
Desi (Desiree) Miller
Miller is the squad’s assistant coach. She played wheelchair basketball in the Rio 2016 Paralympics, when the team won the gold medal, and in London in 2012.
She is married to Mareike Miller, who plays in Germany’s wheelchair basketball team.
Courtney Ryan
Ryan became paralysed from the waist down more than 10 years ago and sought out wheelchair basketball as an alternative to playing football but she wasn’t sure at first if it would be the right sport for her.
But, as she said in a video from the It Gets Better project: “I got my first wheelchair basketball chair and that was it. Game over. My identity as an athlete had arrived.”
Ryan was part of the team at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics, where they won bronze.
She identifies as a lesbian and is married to Molly Bloom, her former teammate at the University of Arizona.
“It’s really frustrating that I have such a strong relationship with being a lesbian and being proud. But it’s sometimes hidden because of the disability, and pushed aside, even though I want that to be out, I want to be proud. But it’s hard when everybody just sees the chair.”
Kaitlyn Eaton
Eaton has been playing wheelchair basketball since the age of five. She was a member of the team that won bronze in Tokyo three years ago, having joined just before the pandemic in 2020.
She told KHOU11 that it was “awesome” to be “playing with the 11 best girls in America right now”.
Eaton is a lesbian and has been with girlfriend Ally for more than four years.
Josie Aslakson
Aslakson (R) has been on the US women’s wheelchair basketball team since 2018 and competed at the Tokyo Paralympics.
She has been paralysed from the waist down since being involved in a car crash at the age of five, and started playing basketball when she was 13. She is the head coach of the women’s wheelchair basketball team at the University of Arizona.
While she’s never worn her sexuality on her sleeve, Aslakson did feature in the online documentary series Ballin’ Out, which followed queer athletes who played on the women’s wheelchair basketball team.
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