Goalball was created in 1946 for World War II veterans with visual impairments.
Austrian Hanz Lorrenzen and German Sepp Reindle developed the sport as a rehabilitation activity. Players roll a ball containing bells toward the opposing team’s goal, using sound to track its movement. All competitors wear eyeshades so athletes with different degrees of vision compete on an equal sensory basis.
Goalball became a Paralympic sport at the 1976 Toronto Games for men, and women’s goalball was added at the 1984 New York and Stoke Mandeville Games. The sport is played on a volleyball-sized court marked with tactile lines.
Goalball is distinct from blind football. Blind football uses a smaller team, a ball with sound devices and feet rather than hands, while goalball players defend a full-width goal and throw or roll the ball by hand.