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"Super sweet" feeling helps USA's Wolf to thrive at Egypt 2024
20 Sep. 2024
When the United States of America aimed high at the 3rd IHF Wheelchair Handball World Championship, settling for nothing less than the title, eyebrows were raised. How could a team which was established with only two months prior to the start of the competition compete for the gold medal?
Fast-forward to September 2024 and that dream is not so far-fetched. In fact, the USA have secured a medal for the first time at the World Championship in any handball discipline, qualifying for the final of the 3rd IHF Wheelchair Handball World Championship, after a dramatic win against Brazil, which featured a stunning comeback against the reigning champions.
In that match, like throughout the whole competition, USA have relied heavily on Chayse Wolf, their top scorer, with 33 points throughout the five matches played so far, including nine in the semi-final against Brazil, four of which came in the shoot-out, when Wolf converted two spin shots, which proved to be decisive in the American side’s win.
“Oh, my gosh. It's very nerve-wracking, especially when you know you're going into a 360, right? It's a little bit more high risk, high reward. So especially in that last throw, Ford, our coach, looked at me and was like, (do your 360, put it in the goal. It was all or nothing,” said Wolf after the match.
Wolf is no stranger to parasports. It’s been nearly 10 years now since his life was changed when he had an accident driving an UTV (Utility Task Vehicle), lost control of the steering wheel on steep terrain, with the vehicle going off the road.
His spinal cord was injured, as well as some vertebrae. He was paralysed from the waist down. But his faith never wavered. Therefore, the man aiming for an athletic college career saw his dreams shattered. Yet he continued his journey and turned to wheelchair basketball.
“I have been playing wheelchair basketball, it was the first thing I have tried and I have been a part of Team USA for a couple times. So, I've been on the world stage a couple times, but this is nothing like this. This is amazing,” says Wolf.
But did he know anything about wheelchair handball? Or handball in general, especially as the USA men’s senior handball team has been making strides and secured their maiden win at the IHF Men’s World Championship in 2023?
“I pretty much knew absolutely nothing about wheelchair handball. I lived in Germany for a few years, so I got to see the stand-up side of it, but I didn't know wheelchair handball existed until a few months ago,” adds Wolf, who has been USA’s top scorer, with 33 points from his team’s 67 at Egypt 2024.
Yet the competition has definitely not started as the USA imagined it. Wolf was the scorer of the team’s first two points in the opener against Brazil, when USA took a 2:0 lead. But then, Brazil went on an unanswered scoring spree, preventing the American side to score for the next 19 minutes and 16 seconds of the match.
“Thanks for bringing that up, it’s really nice,” says Wolf with a big smile upon his face.
But then, USA got the last laugh, after they went on another scoreless set in the semi-final against the reigning champions, conceding a 0:4 loss. They won the second set, 5:2, pushed the decider into a shoot-out, where Wolf converted two spin shots, while Brazil missed two times.
And just like that, the USA made it into the final, with a 10:8 win in the deciding set, delivering Brazil their maiden loss in the history of the competition and sending shockwaves throughout the competition.
“It's a surreal feeling. We're going to celebrate this one, but we know the job's not done yet. We don't have a ceiling yet. We're continuing to progress every single game, and we're going to bring that in the gold medal game, too,” added Wolf.
USA’s top scorer has always been very competitive, having three brothers and always tried to be the best at what he does. It is just normal that he will not stop here, aiming for the gold in the final against Egypt, when the USA will try to become world champions for the first time in history in an IHF-sanctioned event.
“Yeah, I mean, that was our mindset coming in. We watched film at that first training session we had back a few months ago. We were like, hey, this is how the game is run. We watched the gold medal game, Brazil versus Egypt. (We saw how the game was played at the highest level, and we thought we could come here and compete, and that's exactly what we did. We came in with confidence, and it got us this far,” says Wolf.
There is only one more step for the USA, which have won four matches on the trot to qualify for the final. In just a few months, from watching the replay of the final between Brazil and Egypt, they will face the African side in a winners-take-all scenario.
“It is super sweet, this whole journey,” concludes Wolf.