Goalball, a para sport played in complete silence 

As a team sport reserved for visually impaired players, goalball is an unusual discipline, halfway between bowling and handball. At the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, the best nations in the world will be competing for 2 gold medals, from August 29 to September 5 at the South Paris Arena.

Along with boccia, goalball is the only discipline which doesn't have its Olympic counterpart. It's a sport in which players are both attackers... and defenders. Created in 1946 by Second World War veterans who had lost their sight, this sport designed for the visually impaired and blind people has taken a long time to find its place in the Paralympic Games. After taking part for the first time in 1976 in Toronto (Canada), it wasn't until 1984, in Stoke Mandeville (Great Britain), that women were allowed to have their own competition.

Played in 3 against 3, with 3 substitutes per team – a maximum of 4 changes are allowed during the game, only if at least one change has been made during the first half – the aim is to score more goals than the opposing team by throwing the ball successively with the hand. A match is played over two 12-minute periods, with extra time (2 x 3 minutes) and penalties if the two teams are still tied.

Did you know?

To ensure a perfectly fair game between the two teams, the players are fitted with opaque masks that completely obscure their vision, but protect at the same time their eyes from the ball. To stop opposing shots, the defenders have to rely on their hearing, as the ball – which weighs 1,250 grams – is fitted with bells inside, accentuating the sound of the ball at every bounce. Hence, as in blind football, the audience has to stay quiet so that the defending team can hear the ball's movements.

Then, it's up to the defenders to make the save, using their anticipation, reactivity and representation in space skills. It has to be said that, with three players in goal, you have to trust your partner in order to stop the opponent's shots.

Another interesting fact is that the goals are 1.30 metres high and... 9 metres long. In other words, it represents the entire pitch's width, which is identical to a volleyball field (18m x 9m). The pitch is also divided into six equal 3m sections, cut in three sections for each side (the nearest to the goal being the defensive zone, the second the attacking zone and the third the neutral zone).

A shot must bounce at least once in the first two parts of your own half (within the first 6 metres), then a second time in the two neutral parts at the middle of the pitch. The ball has 10 seconds to cross the opponent's side of the field, or the attacking team is in fault – giving the opponent a great chance of scoring by letting only one player on the field to defend the next shot.

In defence, players must be in a waiting position before the opponent shoots, without any part of their upper body touching the ground to ensure a better reactivity. It's only when the ball is thrown that the defenders stretch out in front of the goal to stop the shot. Ground markings – represented by strings under adhesive tape on every line – also help players to find their landmarks in space and mark out the playing areas.

A match can be stopped if one team has 10 more goals than the other.

Turkey, the ogre of women's goalball

Paralympic champion in Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Games, Turkey have been the best team in the world for almost ten years now. Mixed between youth and experience, the squad led by Gültekin Karasu is aiming to make it three in a row in Paris.

The coach made it clear just a few weeks before the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games: "We want to retain our title. The girls have set the bar so high that even finishing second would be a failure," he admitted in a statement reported by local media Sporx.

But the team's success is also, and above all, due to one player in particular: Sevda Altunoluk. The 30-year-old Turkish player is the team's star asset, and widely contributed to the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games title after scoring 9 goals during the final against the Americans (they won 9-2).

Although she finished the tournament with 46 goals in just 7 games, the second highest scorer, Japan's Norika Hagiwara, scored 25.

Nevertheless, Team USA dominates the medal table all genres included, with three Paralympic titles (as Finland and Denmark). The Americans are also the only women of any gender to have taken part in every competition since 1984.

What about France?

The French team has a very young international experience in the discipline, the delegation having been officially recognised in 2016 in the country. In the midst of the development phase, the French women team competed in their very first European Championships in 2021, while the men's team took part in its first official continental competition last year.

For their first Paralympic Games ever, the French girls will face South Korea, Canada and Japan in the group stages, while the boys will face defending champion Brazil, Iran and the United States.