Stuart Robinson, a former British RAF commander, describes in unsparing detail the February morning, 11 years ago, when the Taliban bombed his military vehicle in Afghanistan, throwing him 30ft into the air and blowing both his legs to pieces.
The high-pitched alert in the vehicle which suggested its vital electronic bomb detection kit might be faulty. The red brake-lights of the vehicle in front, visible through the desert dust at dawn, when Robinson called the convoy to a halt. Resting his head back in the momentary wait to get the equipment checked. And then, nothing, until he woke up from an eight-week induced coma in a Birmingham hospital, jaws wired, shoulders fractured.
These are grounds for regret – even bitterness – you might think, given the US army’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, leaving the country at the mercy of the Taliban. ‘It was at the time of the last Paralympics,’ he says of that withdrawal. ‘You saw all the news coverage of the Taliban coming back into Kabul. It does make you wonder – all that hard work and the life lost. What was it worth?’
Robinson actually never looked back. ‘Yes you have to deal with the physical injuries and learn to walk again,’ he says. ‘But the mental side for me… no. You just get on with life.’
The new life took him to a time and a place unforgettable to all who were there, at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, when the GB wheelchair rugby team he is a part of beat the mighty USA to win Olympic gold in the sport called ‘Murderball.’ A European nation had never before won it.
Stuart Robinson is a former British RAF Commander, and will represent his nation at the Paralympics
Great Britain became the first European nation 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 for 20 British servicemen, which would have helped Robinson to walk and be out of his wheelchair, he put off the opportunity, to ensure he could compete in Tokyo and at world championships. Funding for that surgery, under the UK Government LIBOR scheme has now gone.
‘I was happy with the decision to be full time in the wheelchair,’ Robinson says. ‘Not just to play rugby but because I can go further and be less fatigued than when I have the prosthetic legs on. I like to be at the same height but the pain you go through, to be at that height.’
It’s his pivotal role in his adoptive sport which drove 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 dexterity, despite being confined to a wheelchair. His job will be to score many of the British team’s points, with hosts France, Japan, USA and world No 1 side Australia – GB’s first opponents on Thursday – the other challengers for gold.
The fact that Team GB are still a world force is a minor miracle, given that in 2016 GB Wheelchair Rugby has had its £3million funding completely cut. They won in Tokyo despite that blow, with the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund, for whom Robinson is an ambassador, stepping in to help him and others. The Fund has funded the sports wheelchair Robinson used in Tokyo and a new one he will use in Paris. It has also provided adaptations to Robinson’s family home.
The Tokyo win brought funding, but the unvarnished truth is that other nations have raised their level in the past three years. France, who have beaten GB in the last two European championship finals, are also in their pool and will be a serious challenger with a partisan backing.
‘The gap between every competitive nations is much smaller,’ Robinson says. ‘Whoever puts a string of five competitive games together are going to come away with a gold medal. France on home soil, Denmark, Canada, USA, Germany, us – we’re are all capable of it. It’s just a case of whoever performs well on the day.’
As host nation, France have been allowed to pick which pool they go into and chosen GB’s, for what will be a game between the two on Saturday evening.
‘That will be a full-on crowd and unbelievable experience,’ Robinson says. ‘We’ve already had a chat about quietening the crowd down. The last time we played them, we destroyed them in five or ten minutes in a game in Canada, so they’re going to want to be coming back at us.
Seven of Robinson’s 12-strong GB squad from Tokyo remain for their defence at Paris 2024
‘They’ve a point to prove. I think we’d been running out of ideas against them but in that game, we kept refreshing our line-up and not allowing them time to settle and get into their game and knowing how to combat us.’
Seven of the 12-strong GB squad from Tokyo remain, with five debutants. It will be a tough to fill the shoes of Jim Roberts and former captain Chris Ryan.
Robinson doesn’t deny that elements of that fateful morning in the Afghanistan desert will always puzzle him. His driver twisted his ankle. The third squad morning lost a tooth. ‘I’ve spoken to the guys I was on patrol with, have copies of all the patrol reports and there’s not one single thing that will give my memory a nudge,’ he says. ‘But that’s history now. We have an Olympic title to defend.’
The Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund is the RAF’s leading welfare 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
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