London Paralympics: Goalball

The London 2012 Goalball competitions take part at the Handball Arena in the Olympic Park from Thursday 30 August until Friday 7 September. Another sport unique to the Paralympics, Goalball was developed as a rehabilitation activity for visually impaired World War Two veterans. The game is played on an indoor court between two teams of three athletes using a large rubber ball with bells inside. The goals are 9m wide (the entire width of the pitch) and 1.3m high and the aim is to score by rolling the ball into the opposition's goal, past the prone opposition players who may use any part of their bodies to keep the ball from the back of the net. All players wear eyeshades so that players with varying degrees of vision can compete. A match is split into two halves of 12 minutes with each team taking it in turns to throw towards the opposition goal. Both the men's and the women's competition will start with a round-robin group stage before the best teams qualify for the quarter-finals and beyond. The reigning men's Paralympic champions are China (men) and USA (women).