Stephen McGuire: From a last-minute addition to finally winning Paralympic gold on his fourth attempt

Stephen McGuire has had to wait patiently, but it was finally his moment.

The Brit won gold in boccia at the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, defeating Edilson Chica of Colombia 8-5 in the gold medal match.

It is a remarkable story considering McGuire was only informed that he was going to his fourth Paralympics at the start of July.

Now though, he is not only a Paralympic medallist: he is a Paralympic gold medallist.

McGuire said (via BBC Sport), "To get over the line yesterday [1 September] and get into that final, I felt confident. I wouldn't say there was many nerves, there were more nerves in the semi-final because I'd been there before. It was just about enjoying the moment."

The Paralympics GB athlete beat Croatian Davor Kumar in the semi-final at the South Paris Arena, before prevailing in the final on Monday (2 September) to win his first Paralympic medal.

The Scot was born with muscular dystrophy and uses a wheelchair, and in 2022 he suffered a fall which left him with a broken leg and knee.

It was a long road to recovery to get ready for competition again, but it was surely worth it when McGuire had that gold medal around his neck.

"[It took] about 18 months to prove to myself that I could be competitive again," he explained. "My whole game is about tactics. I've not got the best power so I have to compensate a little bit with strategy and that's what I love about boccia."