news blog

Participation in Australian goalball is building, fuelled by new high-performance funding that's enabled Blind Sport Australia to set ambitious targets for future Paralympic Games and supported by portable goals that make it easy to train teams across different locations.

Blind Sport Australia Acting CEO Felicity Wilkeson said the Australian Sports Commission funding had enabled support for goalball and blind football via a shared services team of high-performance coaches and administrators, adding momentum for blind and vision-impaired sport generally.

“Having exposure to Australia’s high-performance system is opening up a lot of doors for us. We’ve entered a new space and that has allowed us to bring on Kyle Burns and two others for a new high-performance sport department.”

The Paralympic sport of goalball is on the rise in Hong Kong, spurred on by a passionate group of organisers and innovative portable goalball goals that allow coaches and organisers to run matches and ‘have a go’ sessions anywhere.

The new goals, provided by Packaworld, helped give more than a thousand people a taste of the sport at Hong Kong Paralympic Day in December. The event, held at the Hong Kong Sports Institute, was a chance to increase awareness of Paralympic sports as the city prepares to co-host China’s 12th National Games for Persons with Disabilities at the end of this year.

China Hong Kong Goalball Association CEO Louis Hou said working in partnership with China Hong Kong Paralympic Committee to let people sample the sport with the Goalball Packagoals was a great success.

Packaworld’s portable goalball goals were used to stage Parafed Waikato’s inaugural goalball tournament in Hamilton, New Zealand, from 23 to 24 November.

Eight mixed teams of men and women battled it out at St John’s College’s hall in a quest for goalball glory, with hometown heroes Waikato winning the Open Division and a team made up of players from multiple regions, dubbed ‘Mixed Spice’, winning the Elite Division.

Parafed Waikato Sports Development Officer Sport Cathy Wooller said goalball’s growing popularity meant there were enough competitors in Waikato this year to justify holding a first ever tournament locally.

“Goalball has definitely grown here and it was really exciting for our team to play at home," she said.

Portable goalball goals from Packaworld are helping Minnesota State Academy for the Blind to revolutionise its successful goalball program by allowing athletes to play the game they love in competition conditions.

That’s according to the academy’s athletic director Charlie Lechtenberg, who said goalball – a team sport designed specifically for athletes with visual impairments – had become the most popular of the six sports offered at MSAB.

“The students love everything that goalball has to offer and they love competing and travelling to other schools to play,” he said.

"Having goals will help better prepare students for our upcoming tournaments – they will have a better feel of the court.

The Paralympic Games in Paris have the world’s sports fans enthralled with the determination, ability and will to succeed of all the amazing athletes taking part.

But while the pinnacle event for disabled sports draws the crowds, some equally exciting happenings are afoot at grassroots level, where participation numbers are on the rise.

The economic impact of parasports events in the US was $139M in 2022, a 78% increase from 2021, according to a 2023 survey by All in Sport Consulting.

This rise in economic impact and participation is being driven by a variety of factors, including increased visibility through global events, and better access to equipment and facilities that enable sport to be played by all.

A community organisation on a mission to improve understanding of how it feels to be blind has staged a unique goalball event for Girl Scouts at Camp Prairie Schooner in Kansas City.

Made possible by new portable goalball goals, the event was one of many ‘immersion experiences’ Blind Spot runs to enable sighted people to experience the world of the blind.

It was also the first time the scouts taking part had the opportunity to enjoy goalball – a Paralympic sport that puts those with and without sight on an equal footing because all players wear blackout goggles and pick up the position of the ball using only their ears.