Rasmussen, who led the United States men's sitting volleyball team to a bronze medal at the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games, met the criteria of being a member of the national team within the past 10 years having represented his country from 2003 to 2011. 

A "Sitting Volleyball Athlete" position was added to the Board last summer, when USA Volleyball became the national governing body for sitting volleyball. 

"The addition of Brent Rasmussen to the USA Volleyball Board of Directors is an important step towards giving our men's and women's sitting volleyball teams a strong voice, and enhancing our role as the official governing body of sitting volleyball," said Lori Okimura, chair of the USA Volleyball Board of Directors.

"His perspective and representation of sitting volleyball will be a wonderful complement to an already diverse Board.

"We are all very eager to start working with Brent to keep supporting the success of the sitting teams as we approach the Paralympic Games in Rio 2016."

Sitting volleyball featured at the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games, where Brent Rasmussen captained the United States men's team to a bronze medal ©Getty Images




Rasmussen also headed the US men's sitting teams at the 2006 and 2010 World Sitting Volleyball Championships, and was part of the sides that won a gold medal at the 2003 Parapan American Games and silver medals at the 2007 and 2011 editions. 

"After 10 years of playing sitting volleyball and seeing the results the men's and women's team have progressed to, I am ecstatic to have the US sitting teams be included under USA Volleyball," he said.

"Seeing and experiencing the growing pains the sitting programme has endured and conquered, I look forward to bringing my experiences to the Board of Directors to take the programme to the next level."

Rasmussen was originally a baseball player, but took up wheelchair softball after an accident resulted in him losing his left foot in February 2002. 

The American was providing assistance to a stranded motorist when a car skidded off the road and hit him.

Having been hospitalised for a month and bed-ridden for a further five, Rasmussen was left with a shattered right ankle and a 16 inch rod in his right leg.

He went on to help guide the Nebraska Barons wheelchair softball team to success at the 2003 National Wheelchair Softball Tournament in his first season, during which he set records for home runs, doubles, intentional walks, and on-base percentage, before embarking on a long and successful career in sitting volleyball. 

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