Stuart Robinson, a former British RAF commander, describes in brutal detail the morning of February 11, when the Taliban bombed his military vehicle in Afghanistan, throwing him 30 feet into the air and blowing both his legs apart.
The high-pitched beep in the vehicle that suggested the vital electronic bomb detection kit might be faulty. The red brake lights of the vehicle ahead, visible through the desert dust at dawn, as Robinson called the convoy to a halt. His head tilted back in the brief wait for the equipment to be checked. And then, nothing, until he awoke from an eight-week induced coma in a Birmingham hospital, his jaws bolted shut and his shoulders broken.
These are reasons for regret—even bitterness—you might think, given the 2021 U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan, leaving the country at the mercy of the Taliban. “It was around the time of the last Paralympics,” he says of that withdrawal. “You saw all the news stories about the Taliban coming back to Kabul. It makes you wonder—all that hard work and lives lost. What was it worth?”
Robinson has never really looked back. “Yes, you have to deal with the physical injuries and learn to walk again,” he says. “But the mental side for me is… no. You just get on with your life.”
The new life took him to a time and place unforgettable for all who attended: the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, when the British wheelchair rugby team he was part of defeated the mighty United States to win Olympic gold in the sport of Murderball. Never before had a European country won the sport.
Stuart Robinson is a former British RAF commander and will represent his country at the Paralympic Games
Great Britain becomes the first European country to win the wheelchair rugby event in Tokyo
The sport has become such a fundamental part of his world that when revolutionary surgery became available to 20 British servicemen, which would have helped Robinson walk and get out of his wheelchair, he postponed the chance to ensure he could compete in Tokyo and at the world championships. Funding for that surgery, under the British government’s LIBOR program, has now disappeared.
“I was happy with the decision to be in the wheelchair full-time,” Robinson said. “Not just to play rugby, but because I can run further and I’m less tired than when I’m wearing the prosthetics. I like to be at the same height, but the pain you go through, you have to be at that height.”
It is his pivotal role in his adopted sport that has influenced the 42-year-old’s decision. Robinson is what is known in wheelchair rugby as a ‘high pointer’ – a player with high standards of ball handling despite being in a wheelchair. His job will be to score many of the points for the British team, with hosts France, Japan, the US and world number one Australia – GB’s first opponents on Thursday – the other challengers for gold.
The fact that Team GB are still a global force is a minor miracle, given that GB Wheelchair Rugby saw its £3 million funding completely cut in 2016. They won in Tokyo despite that blow, with the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund, of which Robinson is an ambassador, stepping in to help him and others. The fund funded the sports wheelchair Robinson used in Tokyo and a new one he will use in Paris. It also provided modifications to Robinson’s family home.
The Tokyo win brought funding, but the plain truth is that other nations have raised their game in the last three years. France, who have beaten GB in the last two European Championship finals, are also in their group and will be a serious challenger with partisan support.
“The gap between all the competitive countries is much smaller,” Robinson says. “Anyone who can put together a series of five competitive games will come away with a gold medal. France on home soil, Denmark, Canada, the US, Germany, us – we’re all capable of doing it. It’s just a matter of who performs best on the day.”
As host country, France was allowed to choose which group it would be placed in. The country chose Great Britain, where a match between the two countries will be played on Saturday evening.
“That will be a packed crowd and an incredible experience,” Robinson said. “We’ve talked about calming the crowd down. The last time we played them, we beat them in five or 10 minutes in a game in Canada, so they’re going to want to get back at us.
Seven of Robinson’s 12-man GB squad from Tokyo remain for their defence in Paris 2024
“They have a point to prove. I think we ran out of ideas against them, but in that game we kept changing our line-up and didn’t give them time to settle in and get into their game and know how to fight us.”
Seven of the 12-man GB squad from Tokyo remain, with five debutants. It will be difficult to fill the shoes of Jim Roberts and former captain Chris Ryan.
Robinson doesn’t deny that elements of that fateful morning in the Afghan desert will always surprise him. His driver twisted his ankle. On the shift’s third morning, he lost a tooth. “I’ve talked to the guys I was on patrol with, I’ve got copies of all the patrol reports, and there’s nothing that can jog my memory,” he says. “But that’s history now. We’ve got an Olympic title to defend.”
The Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund is the RAF’s principal charity. It exists to support current and former members of the RAF, their partners and families, whenever it is needed. For more information visit: www.rafbf.org