What is Boccia?
Boccia is a distinctive Paralympic sport with no Olympic counterpart, designed for athletes with conditions like severe cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy that affect all four limbs.
Played indoors on a court roughly the size of a badminton court, the game involves players trying to get their coloured balls as close as possible to a white target ball, known as the jack.
Here’s how it works:
- Each side has six balls: one team uses red, and the other uses blue.
- Players roll or throw their balls from one end of the court to the other, aiming to position their balls closer to the jack than their opponents.
- The balls are made of leather and filled with plastic granules, which prevents them from bouncing and makes them easier to handle.
Matches are played in "ends," with individual and pairs matches consisting of four ends, and team matches having six ends. At the end of all ends, the side with the highest score wins.
Three-time Paralympic champion David Smith and reigning world champion Claire Taggart will spearhead Team GB’s challenge in Paris.