Britain’s Stephen McGuire says “lots of hard work and lots of soul-searching” helped him recover from serious injuries to win a Paralympic gold in boccia.
The 40-year-old defeated Colombia’s Edilson Chica 8-5 to win the BC4 men’s individual title at the South Paris Arena.
McGuire was a late addition to the British squad for Paris 2024, having had to recover from a broken leg and knee sustained in a fall at his home in 2022.
Following the accident, he was bedbound for a lengthy period and says it took him “about 18 months to prove to myself that I could be competitive again”.
He learned of his selection on 1 July, months after the rest of his British team-mates.
It is McGuire’s first Paralympic medal at his fourth Games, having previously finished fourth in three competitions at the event.
“To get over the line yesterday [in the semi-final] and get into that final, I felt confident,” he said.
“I wouldn’t say there was many nerves, there was more nerves in the semi-final because I’d been there before. It was just about enjoying the moment.”
His flatmate is GB team-mate David Smith, a three-time Paralympic gold medallist, who gave him advice before the final.
McGuire said: “From his experience, he said ‘don’t settle for a silver, just go for it. If you get a silver by going for it, putting it all out there, fair enough, but you’ll give yourself the best chance of the gold.'”
In Monday’s final, it was 3-3 at the halfway mark but in the third of four ends, McGuire scored five points to establish a decisive lead.
“The third end was key. To get a five points at this level, it doesn’t happen very often,” he said.
“I knew my opponent then would go long, trying to force an error, so for me it was just about closing down the scoring space. It wasn’t about trying to win the end, it was making sure that he couldn’t score five.”
A Celtic fan and season ticket-holder, McGuire said he had experienced “an incredible couple of days” after their 3-0 win in the Old Firm match against Rangers on Sunday, of which he saw the final 10 minutes before his semi-final.
He also enjoys chess, which he likens to boccia.
“I love strategic games. Chess is where I started,” he said.
“A lot of my team-mates refuse to play me now at chess. When we’ve got time to kill on planes or sitting in the village, I like to play. Anything where I can think a few moves ahead.
“My whole game is about tactics. I’ve not got the best power so I have to compensate a little bit with strategy and that’s what I love about boccia.”
Boccia is one of three Paralympic-specific sports which has no Olympic counterpart and is for athletes with conditions such as severe cerebral palsy and muscular dystrophy that affects all four limbs.
Both players have six balls – one side has red balls, the other blue balls – and the aim of the game is to get your balls closer to the white target ball, the jack, than your opponent.