Paris 2024 Paralympics: Boccia is acting for gender equality

Boccia is becoming a "more gender-equal" sport. For the first time in 40 years, men and women will have their own individual competitions.

Individual Boccia is back at the 2024 Paris Paralympics with a "more gender-equal" format. For the first time since the precision sport was introduced in 1984 for the Stoke Mandeville & New York Games, men and women will have their own individual competitions in every category (BC1, BC2, BC3, BC4).

"Separate individual medal events offer a more gender-equal footing to us women", Boccia BC3 player HO Yuen Kei (Hong-Kong) recognized. "In other classifications, men are at times more muscular and stronger, so mixing both genders in competition benefits men."

Since 2000, only two of the 23 gold medals in individual Boccia contests were won by women. Republic of Korea’s Ye-Jin Choi, who’s retired now, dominated the BC3 category during the London Paralympics in 2012. Kwok Hoi Jing Karen was the first to do it in Beijing (2008) in BC2.

Trying to welcome more female Para athletes

"There was definitely a sense within the world of Boccia that there was a need to diversify and encourage more females into the sport", David Smith, a three-time Boccia gold-medalist said. "My hope in the future is once female participation is more appropriate to the numbers of disabled female players - potential players - globally, the two categories come back together. It could showcase that female Boccia players are just as good as the males, which I believe they are."

Smith, the 35-year-old British Para athlete, will be back in Paris to try to defend his titles. He will compete in the individual and mixed competition with Kayleigh Haggo and Claire Taggart. He could become the Para athlete with the most gold medals in Boccia history. The record holder is the Brazilian Dirceu Pinto with four titles.

A precision sport

If you don’t know about Boccia here are the rules. This sport is similar to many precision sports such as the traditional French "pétanque". Two teams of 1, 2 or 3 players face each other. The first team starts the game by throwing a white ball called the Jack, then throws the first ball and tries to be as close as possible to the Jack. The other team follows, and the game continues until the 12 balls are on the field.

The team that has the most balls close to the Jack gets points. A point is awarded for each ball better positioned than the closest opposing ball. There are four legs per game, with a fifth one in case of a tie.

The Boccia events will start on August 29th at the South Paris Arena 1.