Hackney Paralympian narrowly misses medal

Ade Orogbemi. Photograph: LOCOG

Wheelchair basketball is amongst the most popular sports in the Paralympic Games, and Hackney-raised Ade Orogbemi has helped give the British team one of their best Paralympic performances ever.

Playing in the position of guard, he was part of the 15-man star side who narrowly missed out on a bronze medal.

Orogbemi was born in Nigeria with polio; he moved to Hackney as a child and was raised and schooled in the borough. At the age of 19 he was stopped on the streets of Hackney by a coach of the East London Bullets, who recruited him to play basketball, and that was the beginning of his career as a sportsman.

Orogbemi subsequently played for clubs in Liverpool, Wolverhampton and Toledo, Spain (where he learnt Spanish). He now plays for Capital City Aces in London.

The basketballer’s eleven-year professional career has gone from strength to strength: he has taken part in several European Championships, winning bronze in 2003, silver in 2005 and gold in 2011.

Orogbemi was chosen for the British side in the Beijing Paralympics of 2008, where he helped the team snag a bronze medal.

The father of two has also had his share of misfortune, having been jailed in 2009 for six months for benefit fraud, but he has bounced back and was selected for the 2012 Paralympic team this summer.

BBC sports columnist Terry Bywater is full of praise for the player, describing him as “The best defender in the world and the most hated player because of that – nobody wants to come up against him. He is one of the quickest, most dynamic and energetic players in the world. Ade gives it everything on court and when he finishes a game he is exhausted with the effort he has put in. If he is playing well, we play well.”

The British side made a wobbly start in the Games, losing 72-77 to Germany on 30 August and 54-70 to Canada on the 31st, before rallying to beat Colombia 81-41 on 1 September and Japan 71-55 on the 3rd. Their 75-70 victory over Turkey on 5 September catapulted them into the semi-finals but unfortunately the team lost out to the United States 61-46.