Goalball: 16 nations for 2 gold medals

It's the news of the week in the Paralympic world! The draw for the pools of the men's and women's goalball tournaments has been made, putting an end to the suspense with just under three months to go before the start of the competition.

Women's tournament: Turkey to treble the stakes?

The draw has established two homogeneous pools. In the first, Turkey, two-time Paralympic title holders, will have to battle it out with Brazil (4th in the world), Israel (5th in the world) and China (7th in the world).

The second group is that of the host country, France. The French team will be joined by Canada (Paralympic champions in 2000 and 2004), Japan (2nd in the world) and South Korea (15th in the world), who have not taken part in this competition since the Atlanta Games in 1996.

Men's tournament: Brazil top the bill

Pool A will be a tough one, with Brazil the favourite to win another gold medal. The world's top-ranked team, they are the reigning Paralympic champions and three-time world champions (2022, 2018, 2014). This means that the United States, Iran and France will have a tough time of it in the opening matches of the competition.

Pool B is more evenly matched, with Paralympic runners-up China alongside Ukraine (ranked 8th in the world), Egypt (ranked 18th in the world) and Japan (ranked 6th in the world).

Concentration and precision

Goalball is one of the two Paralympic disciplines, along with boccia, that have no Olympic equivalent. It has been specially designed for the visually impaired and blind, with no disability category. The idea is to send a ball filled with bells into the opponent's goal by rolling it along the ground. Taking it in turns to attack and defend, the players have to use their whole body to block their opponents' attacks on a pitch 18 metres long and 9 metres wide, which makes defending particularly difficult.

Where and when?

The men's and women's goalball tournaments of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games will take place from 29 August to 5 September. All the matches will be played at the South Paris Arena.