Officially, wheelchair rugby is a mixed gender sport. The reality is four women competed at the Paralympics in 2021 - and that was a record.

GB player Gemma Lumsdaine hopes the team will create a legacy for female players by showing "what we can do".

"It is a huge honour to be part of this squad," the Scot, 25, tells BBC Sport.

"We have a really strong group of women playing in Britain and we want to go there and prove we are the best of the best female players.

"Hopefully, it will be the beginning for getting more women playing the sport."

Britain's Kylie Grimes, who created history in 2021 in Tokyo by becoming the first female Paralympic gold medallist in the sport, will be co-captain of the GB team in Paris along with Faye West, who won silver at last year's European Championships.

Lumsdaine knows that the visibility of Grimes being part of the history-making gold-medal Tokyo win is already making a big difference to the sport.

"Kylie is a real trailblazer," says Lumsdaine, who started her sporting career as a wheelchair basketball player with Dundee Dragons before switching sports.

"She has been a great support to all of us and her experience and her passion for the sport and for women playing is a real bonus.

"For her to win Paralympic gold in a male-dominated sport was huge and her being in the squad has set the standard for other women - not just in Britain but across the world.

"There were 13 women playing at last year's Worlds, which is a big increase and that has created a legacy where it is becoming more regular to have more women competing at a high level which is very positive."

Last year, there were three women in the Australia team who won the World Championship in Denmark, with Shae Graham - another of the Tokyo quartet - featuring alongside wheelchair basketball player Ella Sabljak and Emilie Miller.

The Women's Cup runs from Thursday to Saturday, with Great Britain and Canada joined by three teams featuring players from across the world.

Lumsdaine, who is part of the GB talent pathway programme, is passionate about getting young people, especially those with a disability, involved in sport.

"It can be challenging for women who are new to the sport to come into a male-dominated environment and assert yourself," she said. "But in our training camps ahead of this tournament, everyone has stepped up their game and it has been great to see everyone grow in confidence and show the skillset we have.

"The more we can promote women-only events, the more it will help increase that confidence and we can go on and own it in the mixed-gender environment as well.

"Hopefully events like this week will put us in a better position to enable more women everywhere to be able to compete at a Paralympics.

"There are so many talented female players out there and there is scope for us to grow and to support each other."

GB squad: Coral Batey (North East Bulls), Faye West (West Country Hawks), Gemma Lumsdaine (Glasgow WRC), Hannah Bucys (Yorkshire Lions), Helen Thompson (Stoke Mandeville Maulers), Kylie Grimes, Imogen Steele (London WRC), Philippa Denmead (Ospreys).