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Game on: Boccia champion back in the competition

InLife client Danny Byrne is rediscovering the precision ball sport of Boccia after a long break and encouraging others to get involved.

After almost four years unable to practise his favourite sport, paralympic hopeful Danny Byrne is back in the game.


Danny was forced to take a break from Boccia, a strategic ball sport related to bowls and petanque, because of a damaged wheelchair and Victoria’s string of lockdowns.


In 2018, Danny’s wheelchair was badly fractured when a small lift collapsed during a visit to a Sydney museum. Thankfully he was uninjured.


Finally with his wheelchair game-ready again and lockdowns lifted, the Geelong resident has resumed his regular busy training schedule.


Danny will also be competing for only the second time since lockdowns were lifted in a state championship in Tasmania next Thursday, 19 May.


“After four years off, I realised how much I missed it. I didn’t have much fun during that time,” Danny said.

“It’s good fun and you meet good friends.”


Danny, who has cerebral palsy, started playing Boccia in 2011 and trains twice a week on top of regular hydrotherapy and gym sessions.


His 10-year-goal is to compete in the Brisbane Paralympics in 2032.


“It's always been my dream to represent Australia in the Paralympics,” he said.


Now Danny is planning to up his training schedule to about 20 hours a week of Boccia and attend as many competitions as possible to improve his game and ranking.

His mum Vicky Thorpe said the sport had a huge impact on her son.


“He has matured out of sight since taking up Boccia, it’s opened up a new world for him - he gets out and about and mixes with people,” she said.


Vicky encouraged everyone to have a go and get involved.


“The important thing is to get more people into the sport and enjoying it -it’s this own little community,” she said.


“(At a competition) You have got 100 people in wheelchairs, people with all different degrees of disability and you wouldn’t even notice their disability because of their interaction with each other and the sense of belonging.”

The Geelong Adaptive Sports Boccia club runs two training sessions a week on Tuesdays and Fridays.


Find out more about how to get involved here.

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