To celebrate this year's National Sporting Heritage Day, Sporting Heritage have created a family treasure hunt showcasing the amazing sport heritage collections available around the UK, including the National Paralympic Heritage Centre's collection. You can take part here: Sporting Heritage family treasure hunt 

We are celebrating by sharing 'Sports unique to the Paralympics' campaign. 

Friday 25th September

Vicky Hope-Walker shares the history of Boccia and how it is a sport unique to the Paralympics. 

Monday 28th September

'Sports unique to the Paralympics': Boccia is derived from the ancient Italian game ‘bocce’ and specifically developed for athletes with high levels of impairment. Boccia made its debut at the New York 1984 Paralympics and is one of the fastest growing Paralympic sports played in over 50 countries. It is one of only two sports that do not have an Olympic counterpart.

Beijing 2008 Paralympics. Image ©Wikipedia

Tuesday 29th September

'Sports unique to the Paralympics': Dartchery is a combination of darts and archery using the arrows from archery and the target of a standard dart board. This sport was included in the Summer Paralympics programme from Rome 1960 until it's last appearance at the Arnhem 1980 Games.

Image ©IPC

Wednesday 30th September

Celebrating #NSHD2020 today, the last of our ‘Sports unique to the Paralympic Games’ is Goalball. Created in Austria in 1946 as a form of rehabilitation for visually impaired veterans it first appeared at the Toronto 1976 Games and it has been played at every Paralympics since. As the sport was designed for visually impaired players there is no Olympic equivalent although sighted / non-disabled players can participate at a national level as long as they wear the same blackout masks as other players.

London 2012 Paralympic Games. Image ©GettyImages