As the world turns its attention to the Paris Paralympics, more than three thousand young para-athletes from across New South Wales have been working hard to earn their stripes in Boccia. The New South Wales schools state championships saw teams competing from as far as Port Macquarie, Narooma and Broken hill.
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00:00Focus, precision and strategy, that's what it takes to make it here, to the Boccia State
00:07Finals.
00:08Boccia is a Paralympic sport, similar to lawn bowls, where it's played seated.
00:15So if a player's in a wheelchair, they roll into the player box.
00:19The rules are simple, two teams, three players each, two balls per player.
00:24There's a jack, a white ball that is rolled out first, and the aim of the game is to get
00:29your boccia balls as close to the jack as possible.
00:32This is not as easy as it looks.
00:35Twelve years ago, when this competition first started, there were 40 schools participating.
00:39Today, there's more than 500 competing from all across New South Wales, and they've come
00:45here to win.
00:46We were undefeated back at Timworth.
00:50We were undefeated at Armidale.
00:52Ethan and his teammates took a five-hour bus ride to be here.
00:56Despite not making the grand final, the presence of an Australian Boccia world champion has
01:01them inspired.
01:02It started here for me, and for me to be here today and be that role model for them is something
01:07I'm very proud of.
01:08Born with spinal muscular atrophy, Leeson never crawled or walked, but she soared in Boccia,
01:15winning the world championship in 2022.
01:18She's favoured for a podium finish in Paris later this month.
01:21Hopefully in, you know, 30 years down the line, when I'm not playing anymore and we've
01:25got a new generation, that I can be proud in saying that I've made a difference in that.
01:29I do want to compete in the Olympics one day.
01:32Passing the torch from the current world champion to future Paralympic hopefuls.