Ryley Batt spent most of the first 12 years of his life getting around his hometown of Port Macquarie on a skateboard. "I just wanted to be a normal boy and I didn't want to jump in a wheelchair because, in my eyes, I thought wheelchairs were for disabled people," Batt said. "It's the only sport where it is encouraged …
Where players are confined and their collisions sound like minor car accidents, in a sport first nicknamed "murderball", whose chairs and stares seem Mad Max-inspired, there are moments of beauty and freedom. The world champion is approaching a crossroads with its two best players — Ryley Batt, 34, and Chris Bond, 37 — nearing the end of their storied careers …