"Ruthless" boccia player David Smith keeps bold promise after missing date with Lara Croft
There are many people boccia player David Smith thanks on his journey to Paralympic stardom: His on-court assistant Sarah Nolan, his coach Glynn Tromans, his physio team… and Lara Croft.
The three-time Paralympic champion may never have competed on his sport’s biggest stage if it were not for Hollywood’s famous “tomb raider” or rather, missing out on a chance to see Angelina Jolie on a film set with the other students of his new school.
“I was quite shy and retiring, a young Eastleigh boy, not really into much, but just kind of there,” Smith said. “They were taking some students to see the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider filming production, and I turned it down because I was the new student and I wanted to get used to my surroundings, so I politely declined. But all my friends then came back and told me what an idiot I was for not going and how good-looking Angelina Jolie was. And I, I promptly decided from thereafter that I would say 'yes' to everything.”
And so, he did. Over his next years at Treloar School and College for Disabled Young Children, Smith said ‘yes’ to field trips, theatre productions, music shows, wheelchair football and hockey, among a slew of other activities.
What changed his life most, however, was saying ‘yes’ to boccia. The sport has taken Smith to five Paralympic Games and made him one of the most recognisable faces – in part, thanks to his signature colourful mohawks – of the Paralympic Movement.
Olympics.com spoke to the British athlete about overcoming shyness, using boccia to get out of doing homework, mohawk mishaps at the hairdressers, and why his sport is the most “ruthless” one at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
Breaking out of his shell at “Hogwarts for disabled kids”
David Smith is not hard to spot at a boccia tournament. A bright mohawk, screaming, punching the air – all of these are part of the athlete’s on-court persona. His speaking style is similar – confident, bold, and unapologetically himself.
This was not always the case, however. A shy boy growing up, it was only after Smith enrolled in Treloar’s at age 11 that he started to gain self-confidence.
Set up on a hill in an old mansion, the school Smith described as a “cross between Hogwarts and St. Trinian’s for disabled kids” not only offered the usual curriculum, but also a batch of extracurricular activities, such as sports, theatre and music clubs. There were also regular field trips, including to the set of the 2001 Lara Croft film in Pinewood Studios.
Committed to his pledge to say ‘yes’ to everything, Smith dove into any activity on offer. He represented his house in wheelchair hockey, wheelchair football and Scalextric model car racing. He was also a regular in school plays.
In one production, Smith and other students put their wheelchairs in a row to imitate a train and then drove between the audience seats, at speed, in a choreographed manner. In another, they tested out a new, touch-free technology called Soundbeam, which uses infrared sounds to make music, similar to bats.
After a surprise discovery of some old choir bells in the loft of Treloar’s, Smith and his bandmates teamed up with local schoolchildren who learned to play the bells and then accompanied the Soundbeam performance. Smith was in the percussion section, tasked with hitting an anvil with a hammer to set the beat.
“Within about a year, I was confident, outspoken, inquisitive, opinionated,” Smith said of his on-stage experiences at Treloar’s. “The shyness disappeared, never to return.”
Boccia was another activity on offer at Treloar's and Smith was eager to sign up. It was not the sport itself that attracted him at first, however, but the side perks it entailed. Namely, an escape from evening prep.
“On a Monday night, boccia was on, and because it's sport, that was the one thing that I could get away with, to get out of homework,” Smith explained. “Sport trumped everything at Treloar’s. I knew boccia from my previous school. I didn't particularly enjoy it, but it was better than homework. So it was like, OK, I'm going to do this.”
Smith soon realised that there were multiple travel opportunities in boccia as well. Every March, the school team would set off for the regional championships and in June there would be the national championships.
Treloar’s boccia squad was determined to see their school triumph at every tournament. Winning was the modus operandi at their alma mater. Its students went on to become parliament members, lawyers in the country’s biggest law firms, and Paralympic medallists, like sprinter Ben Rushgrove.
Losing while representing Treloar’s was not an option – and Smith was quick to adopt this winning mentality.
“Because Treloar’s were good at everything, there was quite a bit of pressure to actually make sure that you were winning or medalling. You didn't want to be the one person on the bus not to have a medal,” Smith said. “That's where the competitiveness came from, I guess. And I got quite good, quite early on, picking up the bling.”
David Smith made his Paralympic debut at Beijing 2008 where he helped the British team to a gold medal in the BC1-BC2 mixed tournament.
From "picking up the bling" to finding the key to independence
Once Smith’s competitive drive kicked in, escaping homework was no longer his main reason for playing boccia.
“It was the competition,” he said of what ultimately drew him into the sport. “Once you start winning stuff, it is quite an ego boost and it becomes an addictive thing. I don’t have particularly addictive traits but winning is the one thing that keeps me hanging on. There was always another competition and there was always something to go to.”
Regional championships, nationals… the medals kept piling up. At 14, Smith became the youngest ever British boccia champion. A call-up to the national team brought him to the 2007 world championships, where he won individual and team gold medals. A year later, he made his Paralympic debut.
Up until Beijing 2008, boccia was still a hobby for Smith. He enjoyed the sport but did not envision it as a career for himself. Competing at the Paralympics changed that.
“At that point, I was firmly set on becoming an engineer and I wanted to go to university,” Smith said. “But I went to the Beijing Paralympic Games before my studies started in Swansea and it was there that I realised, wow, this is quite serious.
“The size of the crowds, all the other sports as well,” he continued. “That's the best bit, to be honest. Doing it on your own in a dark and dreary sports centre isn't necessarily my idea of fun. But having people watch you is a lot more interesting.”
While Smith did go on to study engineering – aerospace engineering, to be precise – he also devoted more time to improving himself as an athlete.
His approach to boccia became more professional. And in learning how to become a better player, Smith, who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at age one, discovered ways to improve his overall well-being as well.
“As I got better at this sport, I started appreciating it more, seeing what I could and couldn't do from it. My skill set increased. The things I could do with the balls increased. Problems I could solve increased to a point where not only was it benefiting my mental ability, but also my physical and health ability away from the sport,” Smith said. “That totally transformed me not only as a boccia player, but as a human, and being able to live independently.”
Smith now lives in Swansea, almost 300km from his immediate family, shares a mortgage with his partner, manages his care and runs a nutrition coaching business.
“It's been a multitude of factors, but boccia's definitely had a big impact on it,” Smith said of the sport’s role in helping him gain independence.
Putting on the "war paint": David Smith’s colourful Paralympic appearances
Boccia not only gave Smith more independence, but also brought out his aggressive side.
While the precision sport may look tame compared to the higher-adrenaline sports, Smith cautions not to be fooled by appearances.
“It's the most competitive sport, by far,” Smith said. “One bad shot can cost you the tournament. Some sports you get byes and you lose one game and then you can come back in and have another go at it and blah, blah, blah. In boccia, not a chance. You miss one shot – you lose the end. You could potentially lose the match. You lose the match – you get knocked out and you're done. Your tournament's over before it began. It's that cutthroat. That's why it's ruthless.”
Smith relishes this pressure as he waits for the call up to the field of play during tournaments.
“Twenty minutes before the game, in the call room, I go quite quiet and focussed. And then it's like a pressure cooker,” he said. “You can just feel the energy building, building, building, building, building. And then out of the call room, I take a couple of deep breaths when I'm outside. In the crowd, I can hear the cheering. I suck it all in. Suck in the atmosphere. And then let the energy explode on court.”
David Smith has a tradition of dying his mohawk different colours for every Paralympic Games. At Rio 2016, it was blue to reflect the blue in the Brazilian flag.
Smith does not wait to roll the first ball to show his opponents he is ready for a fight. His colourful mohawk sends that signal before the match even starts.
A different colour every time, the mohawk has become Smith’s trademark at the Paralympic Games, and an effective intimidation tactic.
“I've always worn a mohawk when I'm in competition just to show my competitors that I'm ready for the action, ready for the fight. It's a bit like the traditional war paint,” Smith said. “It's a little bit of, ‘I'm here, I'm ready to play, come and give me your best shot'.”
While Smith always sports a mohawk in tournaments, he only dyes it for the Paralympics to keep the novelty factor. At Beijing 2008 it was red, but then faded out to orange. At London 2012, it was pure red, while at Rio 2016 he switched to blue.
“I didn't like the fact it went orange, so I changed it in London, made it a bit more red, better hairdresser,” Smith said of his dye selection. “And then went to Rio and went blue because there's a bit of blue in the Brazilian flag, so I figured if I knock out all the Brazilian players then the Brazilian crowd might support me instead.”
The red-blue mix Smith sported at Tokyo 2020 was the most elaborate of all his tints thus far – but as it turned out, by accident.
“I wanted to do a blue-fading-into-red mohawk, but when I was in the hairdressers and they were dying my hair, I didn't realise that they bleached the whole of my head, not just the top part, at which point it was too late to go back,” Smith said. “So it ended up being blue sides and a red top, rather than just a simple blue into red fade.”
Although Smith's mohawk is a good intimidation tactic, it has another purpose as well – to bring luck.
Smith won five Paralympic medals while sporting the colourful hair: gold in the mixed team BC1-2 at Beijing 2008, silver in the mixed individual BC1 and bronze in mixed team BC1-2 at London 2012, his first individual gold at Rio 2016, and another individual gold at Tokyo 2020.
“It was a joke that Nigel [Murray] pulled on me, in Beijing. He said it was team tradition that we all dye our hair before the Paralympics to play, and I believed him being a 19-year-old,” Smith said.
"We ended up winning in Beijing, and then that became a tradition. And it just transpired that I happened to be winning medals at the same time, so I didn't look like a tit for wearing that. If I was ranked bottom and had a mohawk, I'd look a bit of a fool. But luckily, I'm winning at the same time so I can pull it off.”
David Smith’s fighter mentality on and off the boccia court
With a fresh red-and-blue mohawk to bring him luck at Paris 2024, Smith now has his sights set on getting his fourth Paralympic gold medal.
From a shy boy who started playing boccia in school to a five-time Paralympic medallist, Smith has undergone a vast transformation through the sport as boccia’s “ruthless” nature rubbed off on him well beyond the court. There are certainly no more Lara Croft sightings that Smith is “politely declining”.
“I'm pretty aggressive everywhere,” Smith said with a laugh. “I'm aggressive with life, so my driving style is pretty similar to how I play boccia, so say all the people on the M4 [motorway] that get undertaken by me.
“I take life the same way as I take boccia. There's no other way for me. There's no point messing around or waiting for opportunities to come your way. You got to create the chances yourself. Don't give anything away, but also don't let chances pass you by. And boccia is all about taking chances. Being hard to beat, keeping the score down. But also, when someone gives you an opening, punish them as hard as you can. And I treat life the same way really. Life is full of opportunities and if you don't grab them, then you're doing yourself and everyone around you a disservice.”