Before Paris 2024, Australia had only ever won two Paralympic boccia medals – both of them bronze. And between Sydney 2000 and Rio 2016, there was not a single Australian representative in the sport.

But it was always likely that this year’s Games would be a watershed moment for Australian boccia.

Dan Michel came into Paris as the world’s number-one ranked men’s BC3 player, Jamieson Leeson was number two in the women’s, and together they were red-hot mixed pairs favourites.

So, it was unsurprising that Australia’s two greatest boccia players delivered Australia’s greatest Paralympic boccia result, with a silver medal each in their individual events, although they bowed out of the mixed event in the quarterfinals.

Michel and Leeson’s success both reflects boccia’s recent growth in Australia and foreshadows its further development, which will be vital for the construction of a more inclusive sporting future.

A sport designed with inclusion in mind

Boccia is specifically designed for athletes with a high level of physical impairment and takes inspiration from sports such as lawn bowls and bocce. It is strategically dense and filled with angles and nuance.

In Leeson and Michel’s BC3 class, the balls enter the court via a ramp, which is managed by the athlete’s dedicated operator.

Growing up, Leeson and Michel say they struggled to find sports they could take part in and excel at.

As Dan Michel told ABC Sport earlier this year, finding boccia at 15 was something of a eureka moment.

“I quickly saw that it was for me and realised there was apparently a big pathway,” he said.

“And for me, that was really all I wanted; an opportunity to play a sport and to have that opportunity to, if I was good enough, go and play for my country at the highest level.”

Hopefully, the next generation of boccia stars will not have to wait until their mid-teens to find the sport, with grassroots tournaments and “come and try” days becoming more commonplace across the country.

Now in its 11th year, the NSW Primary and Secondary School Boccia Championships is billed as the largest competition of its kind in the world.

This year’s tournament featured more than 3,400 competitors from 470 schools across the state, a far cry from the 40 schools that took part in its inaugural edition.

Leeson is a veteran of the competition, and only weeks before she became Australia’s first-ever female boccia medallist, she attended the tournament’s mid-August final at Sydney Olympic Park.

And after returning home from her Paris success, Leeson had a clear message.

“If you don’t think there’s a sport available for you, try boccia,” she said.

Immeasurable good for a more inclusive sporting future

In Australia, people with disability participate in sport at a lower rate than the rest of the population, and that rate is even lower for people with a significant physical impairment.

As one of the two Paralympic sports that do not have an Olympic counterpart (the other is goalball), boccia is a rarity because it is designed specifically for athletes with high levels of physical impairment.

The International Paralympic Committee has declared it the “fastest-growing sport within the Paralympic movement”, which was reflected in the diversity of the athletes competing in Paris.

A substantial growth in Asia saw countries from the continent make up four of the top-five positions on the boccia medal table. This was distinct from how it looked in Tokyo, with Europe dominating the standings.

Back home, the sport has seen a participation explosion in recent years.

From fewer than 70 registered players in January 2019, there were 493 in September 2023.

Now, with two freshly minted Paralympic silver medallists and the game on the Australian sporting radar like never before, that growth seems bound to continue.