Minneapolis’ Chuck Aoki wins third Paralympic silver medal in wheelchair rugby

Chuck Aoki of Minneapolis was guaranteed to become the most decorated wheelchair rugby player in United States Paralympics history Monday with his fourth medal, no matter what happened in the United States’ gold medal game against Japan. He was just hoping that the medal that earned that honor would be a gold one.

The U.S. lost to Japan 48-41 in Paris, winning a silver medal for the third Paralympics Games in a row. Japan, which also beat the U.S. in group play, claimed wheelchair rugby gold for the first time.

“I wanted this so badly for our team,” Aoki said in a TV interview afterward. “It hurts.”

Along with those silvers in 2016 in Rio and 2021 in Tokyo, Aoki, 33, won a bronze medal in London in 2012. He scored 14 tries against Japan to give him 106 for the tournament, in which he played every minute until the last 1:30.

“I know it’s a team sport, but I can’t help but feel like I let everyone down,” he said.

The U.S. led 14-11 after the first period, but turnovers began to pile up for the Americans, allowing Japan to pull ahead by outscoring them 13-9 in the second. The U.S. finished with nine turnovers in the game.

“We just ran out of gas. That’s a really talented and deep team in Japan,” Aoki added. “They can really rotate lines. … We have a lot of talented players, but we just ran out of steam and started to make mental errors and they compounded on themselves. And they were clinical; they took care of the ball.”