Boccia

The first sport that I will cover from the Paralympics is Boccia. Boccia is a sport where you slightly toss a ball to a target. It tests the athlete’s coordination, accuracy, concentration, and ability to strategize.2 The name “boccia” is Latin for “boss”.4  Bocce is an able-bodied sport from Italy. Boccia was designed to be played by people with cerebral palsy but now athletes with other disabilities with their motor skills (stroke, traumatic brain injury, high - level spinal cord injuries, muscular dystrophy, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and arthrogryposis) can play in the sport.2&4 Boccia became an official Paralympic Sport in the Beijing Paralympic Games in 2008.4 It is played indoors on a flat, smooth surface by individuals and teams of three;2 the teams can be mixed gender.4

Athletes can throw, kick, or use an assistive device to propel leather balls as close as possible to a white target ball called the jack. There are six red balls and six blue balls. In individual matches, each player throws six balls.2 There are four different classifications BC1, BC2, BC3, and BC4. BC1 players can throw the ball with a hand or foot. They can also complete with an assistant who stays outside of the competitor’s playing box, to stabilize or adjust their playing chair and give the ball to the player when requested. BC2 players can throw the ball only by hand and cannot use assistance. BC3 players have very severe locomotor dysfunction in all four extremities. Players cannot grasp or release action and have insufficient range of movement to propel a Boccia ball onto the court. They can use assistive devices such as a ramp to roll the ball. BC4 players have severe locomotor dysfunction of all four extremities as well as poor torso control. They can demonstrate sufficient dexterity to throw the ball onto the court and cannot use assistance.1

This year at the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games, the United State of America did not have a team. One athlete that has played for Team USA in the past is Austin Hanson. He started playing boccia when he was twelve years old and has been training with his coach/father, Gary, for twenty one years. He has represented Team USA at the 1996, 2004, and 2012 Paralympic Games.3

Works Cited

1BISFed. (2016). Classification. Retrieved from BISFed: http://www.bisfed.com/about-boccia/classification/

2USA, T. (2016). Boccia. Retrieved from Team USA: http://www.teamusa.org/US-Paralympics/Sports/Boccia

3USA, T. (2016). Classification. Retrieved from Team USA: http://www.teamusa.org/US-Paralympics/athlete-classifications/boccia/

4Wikipedia. (2016, September 13). Boccia. Retrieved from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boccia