00:00 Blind football is always a crowd favourite at the Paralympics.
00:06 But Australia has never competed in the sport at the Games.
00:11 Australian men's team player 51-year-old Shahram Jazan is hoping to change that.
00:16 This is one of my wishes.
00:18 I don't know if I can be able to participate because as you know I am the grandpa.
00:25 When you basically run on the field you feel free.
00:29 The Australian women's goalball team has competed at five Paralympics but missed out on qualifying
00:35 for Paris.
00:36 Tokyo Paralympian Brodie Benson is determined to help the team grow.
00:41 It's like my place to shine.
00:43 It's like my place is a safe place that's so supportive and it just feels like a home
00:49 and a community.
00:50 Goalball is a unique sport.
00:52 There is no Olympic equivalent.
00:55 Unlike blind football it struggles to access funding, meaning that many of the athletes
01:00 self-fund to compete.
01:02 We've got eight Paralympic sports currently that are not funded from a high performance
01:06 perspective and that's based on their prior history in terms of their performance.
01:11 Australia is likely to be represented in only 16 of the 22 sports at this year's Games.
01:18 Paralympics Australia wants to ensure the likes of blind football and goalball are successful
01:23 in Brisbane 2032.
01:25 We're really confident and working closely with our system partners and key stakeholders
01:31 at the Australian Institute of Sport to ensure that those programs have support moving into
01:36 the future.
01:37 This includes funding, coaching support, classification opportunities for new athletes, talent identification
01:44 programs and more chances to compete internationally.
01:50 There'll be lots of 10, 15, 20 year old athletes now or emerging athletes that will be in prime
01:58 peak performance in eight years time.
02:01 To be able to put our squad into say even a world championships seven years out from
02:07 a home Paralympics in Brisbane would be a massive thing for our squad.
02:11 Building that base of players now gives us plenty of time to expand them and grow them
02:15 and help them continue to develop so we have a really strong team moving forwards.
02:22 And even for those athletes who might not be in Brisbane there is still the opportunity
02:27 to be a part of the team.
02:29 I will be able to do some coaching, mentoring or taking the team to the next stage.
02:36 [BLANK_AUDIO]
