Goalball was introduced in 1946 by Austrian Hans Lorenzen and German Sepp Reindl in an effort to help the rehabilitation of blinded war veterans. The game was introduced to the World in 1976 at the Toronto Olympiad in Canada, and has been played at every Paralympic Games since. Also, every four years, a World Championships is held with the first having been in Austria in 1978. Since these early days, the popularity of Goalball has increased enormously to the extent that it is now played in over 100 countries worldwide.
Among the main contenders for the men’s competition are reigning World and European Champions Lithuania, Paralympic Champions China, and the strong Swedish team, who have not been outside the top three in a World event in the last decade.
The women’s competition has been dominated by the two North American teams over the last ten years. Canada take part as the reigning World Champions and USA as Paralympic gold medallists. They are sure to be challenged by the Chinese who were runners up in the Beijing Paralympic Games and the reigning European Champions from host nation Great Britain.
Rules & Regulations
Goalball is played by two teams of three players with a maximum of three substitutes on each team. The game is conducted on the floor of a gymnasium within a rectangular court, which is divided into two halves by a centre line. Goals are erected at either end and extend right across the court.
The game is to be played with a bell ball. The ball is made of a hard rubber but has holes in it so that the bells inside can be heard as the ball moves. The object of the game is for each team to roll the ball across the opponent's goal line while the other team attempts to prevent this from happening.
A game will be a total of 20 minutes divided into 2 halves of 10 minutes each.
The rules of the game are controlled by the International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA). To view the rules in their entirety please visit the IBSA website.