OTTAWA – Janice Dawson is used to getting a lot of blank stares when she tells people she’s the coach of Canada’s Paralympics goalball team.
“Goal what? Goalball? What is that? But once I explain it people think it’s pretty cool,” she said.
The sport, played by visually-impaired athletes, looks like a hybrid of dodgeball and basketball, played on a volleyball court with soccer nets.
It’s been part of the Paralympics for 36 years, with Canada’s national team as a top contender, but the sport remains fairly obscure.
“A lot of disability sports are adapted from able-bodied sports,” Dawson said. “Goalball there is nothing like it, so it is not well known.”
Here’s what you need to know about one of the hardest-hitting sports coming to London this summer.
The rules
Teams consist of three players on the court. The try to throw a ball that has bells embedded in it into their opponent’s goal. The two teams on the court alternates throwing or rolling the ball from one end of the playing area to the other. Players stay close to their own goal whether on defence or offence. They use the sound of the bells to figure out where the ball is.
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That ball – which is a bit bigger and a bit heavier than a basketball – can be coming at them at up to 80 kilometres an hour.
The game consists of two 12 minute periods.
Partially sighted players must wear blindfolds so they don’t have an advantage over blind players.
“They really have to focus on teamwork and communication in order to defend the net properly and to know where each other is at all times,” Dawson said. “So it’s very challenging.”
The lines on the court are tape with rope underneath. It gives the players a tactile guide to find their place on the court.
History of the sport
The birth of the sport dates back to 1946 when Austria’s Hans Laurenzen and Germany’s Sett Randlem were looking for ways to help rehabilitate veterans who lost their sight during the Second World War.
While invented by Europeans, goalball’s Paralympic debut has Canadian roots, introduced as a demonstration sport at the 1976 games in Toronto.
Two years later the first world champions for goalball were held in Austria – a competition that is now held every four years.
Goalball officially became a part of the Paralympic Games in 1984 and has been a part of every games since.
Canada’s teams
Women’s team
Ashlie Andrews, Penticton, BC
Nancy Morin, Longueuil, QC
Jillian MacSween, Halifax, NS
Cassandra Orgeles, Fort Erie, ON
Amy Kneebone, Charlottetown, PEI
Whitney Bogart, Thunder Bay, ON
Men’s team
Brendan Gaulin, Montreal, QC
Mario Caron, St Jean Port Joli, QC
Bruno Hache, Montreal, QC
Ahmad Zeividavi, Vancouver, BC
Doug Ripley, Powell River, BC
Simon Tremblay, Alma, QC
How Canada stacks up
The Canadian women’s goalball team won the world championship in 2006. They were also back-to-back Paralympic gold medalists, winning in 2000 in Sydney, Australia and in 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Canadian men won silver at the 1996 games in Atlanta, Georgia.
The women’s team is considered a medal favourite after taking the title at the world championships in Turkey last year. The men’s team placed third in that tournament.
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