Goalball, a Paralympic sport played in complete silence

photo: olympics.com/Koki Nagahama/Getty Images

As a team sport designed for players with visual impairments, goalball is an unusual discipline halfway between skittles and handball. At the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris, the best national teams in the world will be competing for 2 gold medals, from 29 August to 5 September at the South Paris Arena.

Along with boccia, goalball is the only discipline that does not have an Olympic counterpart. It is a sport in which players are both attackers and defenders. Created in 1946 by World War II veterans who had lost their sight, this sport for the blind and partially sighted has long sought a place in the Paralympic Games. After taking part for the first time in 1976 in Toronto, Canada, it was not until 1984 in Stoke Mandeville (UK) that women saw their own competition.

The game is played in three against three, with three substitutes per team - a maximum of four substitutions are allowed during the game, only if there is at least one substitution in the first half - the aim is to score more goals than the opposing team by successively throwing the ball by hand. The match is played in two 12-minute halves, with extra time (2 x 3 minutes) and penalties if both teams are still tied.

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