One of the best-reviewed movies of the year so far is Murderball (2005), the documentary about the US and Canadian national wheelchair rugby teams. Played by quadriplegics, the sport was invented in Canada in the 1970s and really did used to be known as murderball, until it turned out to be difficult to attract corporate sponsors with that name. When classing works on wheelchair rugby (a.k.a. quad rugby), classifiers might be tempted by 796.0456 Wheelchair sports, where the note says to “Class here sports and games modified for participation of persons with physical disabilities.” But this number is for comprehensive works on wheelchair sports in general, not for works on specific sports. The Manual note at 796.08 vs. 796.04 instructs classifiers to “Class the wheelchair version of a specific sport with variants of the sport, e.g., wheelchair basketball 796.3238.” Wheelchair rugby incorporates elements of basketball and hockey, but is basically a variant of rugby. However, there is currently no separate class for “Variants of Rugby,” so works on variants such as wheelchair rugby should simply be classed in standing room at 796.333 Rugby. The more such works that are published, the more warrant we will have for creating a separate class. New Zealand beat Canada to win the gold medal for wheelchair rugby at the International Paralympic Games in Athens in 2004, by the way; the US team took bronze.
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