Goalball

Goalball is a competitive team sport played by athletes who are blind and visually impaired. The sport was introduced shortly after World War II (1939–1945) as an outlet for veterans who had been blinded to remain physically active. Goalball is like soccer and consists of two teams with three players each. Players roll a large ball with bells inside across a court to try to get the ball past their opponents and into the opposing net. The bells allow players to react to the ball and try to stop it. As of the 2020s, competitive goalball is played in 112 countries and has been included in the Paralympic Games since 1976.

Background

In the wake of World War II, Austrian physical therapist Hanz Lorenzen and his German colleague Sett Reindle were working to rehabilitate veterans who had been blinded during the war. They developed a game that was played like soccer but used a ball that made noise so players who were blind could hear and react to it. Goalball eventually caught on in other countries and began to grow in popularity during the 1950s and 1960s.

About the same time Lorenzen and Reindle were developing goalball, Ludwig Guttmann, a German doctor living in Great Britain, began creating sports-related rehabilitation methods for injured soldiers. Guttmann’s methods eventually resulted in the 1948 Stoke Mandeville Games, an archery competition for athletes who used wheelchairs. During the 1950s, several new sports were added, and the games’ format began to resemble that of the Olympics. In 1960, the event was open to all athletes that used a wheelchair, not just war veterans. It also became known as the Paralympic Games.

In 1976, the Paralympic Games expanded to include people with many different disabilities. That same year, men’s goalball made its Paralympics debut, with Austria winning the gold medal. A women’s event was added in 1984. The first goalball world championships were held in Austria in 1978. They have been held every four years since then.

Overview

Goalball is a team sport played by two teams with three players on each side. Each team sets up on its own end of the court—an indoor area about 29.5 feet (9 meters) wide and 59 feet (18 meters) long. Each player stays inside their zone, a roughly 10-foot (3-meter) deep area in front of their goal marked off by heavy string taped to the floor. Players can feel the string to gauge the boundaries of their zone. About 10 feet in front of the player zone is the highball line. The ball must touch the floor at least once before reaching the highball line for the shot to be legal. Behind the players is a net that covers the entire width of the court.

The goalball weighs 2.8 pounds (1.3 kilograms) and is about the size of a standard basketball. The ball is hollow but contains bells inside so players can hear it approaching. Each ball has eight small holes in it so the bells can be heard more easily.

According to the official guidelines of the sport, players must be legally blind—having 10 percent vision or less—to compete at the competitive level. To even the playing field, all players must wear eyeshades, which are typically blacked-out or taped-up goggles. For major competitions, players are also required to wear eye patches.

Goalball is played in two halves of twelve minutes each, with a three-minute halftime. With timeouts and stoppages for penalties, games usually last about an hour. The game begins with a coin toss, with the referee tossing the ball to the winning team.

Players set up in their zones on their hands and knees. The center, the player in the middle of the court, acts as the team’s primary defensive player. It is their job to guard most of the net. The two wings, players to the right or left of the center, are the primary attackers. When the center stops the ball, they often throw it to one of the wings. If a team stops an opponent’s shot and controls the ball, that team goes on offense, and the other team becomes the defense. Players have a ten-second shot clock at which time they must take a shot.

Because the opposing player who just threw the ball is often out of position, the wings try to take advantage by quickly throwing the ball at the vulnerable spot in the opponent’s defense. Players can also use “trick” shots by trying to curve their shots or throwing the ball at varying speeds. A goal is scored when the ball completely crosses the opponent’s goal line in front of their net. If one team goes up by ten goals, the game may be stopped.

Teams can lose possession if the ball stops short of reaching the defense, a blocked shot rolls back over the center line, or if a player throws the ball out of bounds. Teams can also lose possession if a player shoots before they are allowed, such as before the game starts or too soon after a penalty.

Unlike most competitive sports, goalball requires fans and players to keep silent during play. A penalty can be called on a player for making noise on the court. Other penalties include a shot-clock violation or for touching eyeshades without the permission of a game official. When a penalty is called, the player who committed the offense must guard their team’s goal all by themselves.

Since goalball was made a Paralympic sport in 1976, the United States has won more medals than any other nation. The US men won gold in 1984 and the US women in 1984 and 2008. At the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympic Games, the United States women's team won the bronze medal, and the men's team won the silver. The US women earned a silver medal in the 2020 Paralympic Games—played in 2021 because of the 2020 global COVID-19 pandemic. At the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, Japan and Turkey won Gold, Israel and Ukraine won silver, and Brazil and China won bronze medals. Goalball is also played at a number of championships worldwide, including the US Association of Blind Athletes' (USABA) Goalball National Championships, the US National High School Goalball Championships, the Goalball Invitational, the Asian Para Games, the IBSA Goalball Americas Championships, and the African Championships.

Bibliography

Costantini, Lisa. “U.S. Women’s Goalball Team Takes the Silver in Friday Night’s Final.” Team USA, 3 Sept. 2021, www.teamusa.com/news/2021/september/03/us-womens-goalball-team-takes-the-silver-in-friday-nights-final. Accessed 5 Jan. 2025.

“Goalball Fact Sheet.” Rutgers University, kines.rutgers.edu/dshw/sports-recreation/adaptive-sports/1073-goalball-fact-sheet. Accessed 5 Jan. 2025.

"Goalball." Olympics, 2024, olympics.com/en/paris-2024/paralympic-games/sports/goalball. Accessed 5 Jan. 2025.

“Goalball.” United States Association of Blind Athletes, www.usaba.org/clubs-sports/goalball. Accessed 5 Jan. 2025.

“Hans Lorenzen.” Football Makes History, 17 Sept. 2020, footballmakeshistory.eu/hans-lorenzen. Accessed 5 Jan. 2025.

“History of Goalball.” International Paralympic Committee, www.paralympic.org/goalball/about. Accessed 5 Jan. 2025.

Knapp, Gwen. “Goalball Teammates Set Paralympic Record for Longevity.” The New York Times, 31 Aug. 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/08/31/sports/olympics/tokyo-paralympics-goalball.html. Accessed 5 Jan. 2025.

Treisman, Rachel. “When Did the Paralympics Start? Here’s a Brief History of the Games.” NPR, 25 Aug. 2021, www.npr.org/2021/08/25/1030629549/paralympics-history-name-meaning. Accessed 5 Jan. 2025.

“USA Goalball.” United States Association of Blind Athletes, www.usaba.org/usa-goalball. Accessed 5 Jan. 2025.