Lawn Bowls at the Paralympic Games
Lawn bowls is a subtle and precise sport where disabled individuals can equally compete with their able-bodied rivals. The game calls for rolling radially asymmetrical balls, which are referred to as lawn bowls, toward small white-colored ball target, which is referred to as jack. The sport traces its roots to Great Britain in the 13th century.
lawn bowls at the 1996 ParalympicsThe sport is usually played on a surface called “Bowling Green” which is divided into parallel playing strips dubbed as rinks. The objective is to get one or more bowls of the team nearer to the jack than that of the opposing team’s.
Para-sport lawn bowls players are categorized based on their disability. Classifications are based on functional mobility, or for the vision impaired the classifications are based on the medical classification.
Lawn bowls made its debut in the 1968 Paralympic Games. The sport appeared at each Paralympics until 1988, though was dropped for the 1992 Summer Paralympics, returning on 1996 Summer Paralympics, and dropped again for 2000 Summer Paralympics. The athlete classifications that have been part of the Paralympics include blind, wheelchair and amputee disability types.
The sport has not appeared at any Paralympics since 1996. Due to the sport not being played widely around the world, and not being part of the Olympic Games program, it does not seem likely that the sport will make a comeback to the Paralympic Games program in the near future.
Related Pages
- Lawn Bowls at the Commonwealth Games
- About the sport of Lawn Bowling
- List of sports at the Paralympics
- Discontinued Paralympic Sports
- List of Sports for Athletes with Disabilities
- Complete list of sports
- Main Paralympics page
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