Goalball at the 2008 Summer Paralympics

Goalball at the XIII Paralympic Games
Paralympic Goalball
Venue	Beijing Institute of Technology Gymnasium
Dates	7–14 September
←2004 2012→

Goalball at the 2008 Summer Paralympics was held in the Beijing Institute of Technology Gymnasium from September 7 to September 14. The competition consisted of men's and women's team events, and what had been billed as one of the most open tournaments certainly lived up to expectations.

In the women's gold medal game, the lead changed hands five times, with the USA outlasting China by a score of 6–5, with never more than one goal in it. The winning goal came from Asya Miller with less than a minute to go.

The gold medal in the men's game was even more dramatic. Lithuania, the current world champions, took advantage of a clutch of penalties in the first half to jump ahead of China by 6 goals to 2 at the half, and looked to be holding on despite a steady comeback. With only 50 seconds on the clock, the Chinese were two goals behind (6–8) but managed to overturn the deficit with three goals in 30 seconds to take the gold 9–8, sending the packed BIT Gymnasium into rapture.

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men	China (CHN) Bao Daolei Cai Changgui Chen Liangliang Du Jinran Yang Chunhong Yao Yongquan	Lithuania (LTU) Arvydas Juchna Saulius Leonavicius Nerijus Montvydas Genrik Pavliukianec Zydrunas Simkus Marius Zibolis	Sweden (SWE) Mikael Akerberg Jimmy Bjorkstrand Stefan Gahne Niklas Hultqvist Oskar Kuus Fatmir Seremeti
Women	United States (USA) Jen Armbruster Lisa Banta Jackie Barnes Jessie Lorenz Asya Miller Robin Theryoung	China (CHN) Chen Fengqing Fan Feifei Lin Shan Wang Ruixue Wang Shasha Xu Juan	Denmark (DEN) Karina Jørgensen Maria Larsen Mette Nissen Kamilla Ryding Ninna Thomsen Lykke Vedsted

Players are given a classification depending on the type and extent of their disability. Visually impaired athletes in classes B1 through B3 can take part in goalball. Partially sighted players wear blindfolds so that they compete on equal terms with blind players.

There were 12 men's teams and 8 women's teams taking part in this sport.

Slovenia Gorazd Dolanc Matej Ledinek Dejan Pirc Simon Podobnikar Ivan Vinkler Bostjan Vogrincic	Lithuania Arvydas Juchna Saulius Leonavicius Nerijus Montvydas Genrik Pavliukianec Zydrunas Simkus Marius Zibolis	Denmark Mads Brix Baulund Jonas Elkjaer Peter Troels Hahnemann Weichel Kenneth Hansen Ricky Nielsen Martin Pedersen	Spain Vicente Galiana Jose Fernando Garcia Raul Garcia Jose Perez Tomas Rubio Jesus Nazaret Santana Guillen
Finland Veli-Matti Aittola Toni Alenius Jorma Kivinen Jarno Mattila Erkki Ilmari Miinala Petri Kalevi Posio	Belgium Youssef Bihi Vincent Buisseret Johann Cyriel G. de Rick Bruno Jan Vanhove Danny van Eenooghe Peter van Hout	China Bao Dao Lei Cai Changgui Chen Liang Liang Du Jinran Yao Yongquan Yang Chunhong	Canada Mario Caron Jeff Christy Rob Christy Bruno Hache Dean Kozak
Sweden Mikael Bo Akerberg Jimmy Bjorkstrand Stefan Ingvar Gahne Niklas Glenn Hultqvist Oskar Kuus Fatmir Seremeti	Brazil Alexsander Celente Thiago Henrique Firmino da Costa Legy Freire Paulo Homem Romário Marques Luiz Silva Filho	Iran Seyed Rahmatollah Hosseini Moghadamkari Behzad Jahangiri Ghavam Javad Jalali Mohsen Jalilvandshirkhanitabar Seyed Mehdi Sayahi Mohammad Soranji Estarki	United States Steve Denuyl Chris Dodds Tyler Merren Donte Mickens Edward Munro Daryl Walker

China Chen Fengqing Fan Feifei Lin Shan Wang Ruixue Wang Shasha Xu Juan	United States Jen Armbruster Lisa Banta Jackie Barnes Jessie Lorenz Asya Miller	Denmark Kamilla Brady Ryding Karina Jørgensen Maria Larsen Mette Praestegaard Nissen Ninna Thomsen Likke Vilstrup Vedsted	Canada Amy Alsop Amy Kneebone Annette Lisabeth Nancy Morin Shawna Ryan Contessa Scott
Sweden Asa Alverstedt Malin Gustavsson Josefine Jalmestal Maria Juliusson Sofia Naesstrom Anna Nilsson	Brazil Adriana Bonifácio Lino Ana Carolina Duarte Ruas Custódio Cláudia Paula Gonçalves de Amorim Oliveira Simone Rocha Neuzimar Santos Luana Silva	Japan Akiko Adachi Mieko Kato Masae Komiya Yuki Naoi Tomoe Takada Rie Urata	Germany Natalie Ball Cornelia Dietz Ina Fischer Christiane Moller Swetlana Otto Stefanie Elfriede Schindler

The twelve men's teams were divided into two even groups for a single round robin group stage. The top four teams of each group will advance to the quarter finals to compete for 1st through 8th place, while the last two teams of each group compete for 9th through 12th place. All matches in the second stage are knock-out format.

Team	W	L	D	PF	PA	PD
Slovenia (SLO)	5	0	0	35	24	+11
Lithuania (LTU)	4	1	0	50	18	+32
Denmark (DEN)	2	2	1	29	26	+3
Finland (FIN)	2	3	0	26	41	−15
Belgium (BEL)	1	4	0	33	42	−9
Spain (ESP)	0	4	1	20	42	−22

2008-09-07
Lithuania	9 – 5	Belgium
Denmark	2 – 2	Spain
Slovenia	7 – 2	Finland
2008-09-08
Finland	5 – 15	Lithuania
Slovenia	4 – 2	Denmark
Belgium	12 – 6	Spain
2008-09-09
Finland	4 – 11	Denmark
Lithuania	10 – 0	Spain
Belgium	5 – 6	Slovenia
2008-09-10
Spain	9 – 11	Slovenia
Finland	8 – 5	Belgium
Denmark	1 – 10	Lithuania
2008-09-11
Denmark	13 – 6	Belgium
Lithuania	6 – 7	Slovenia
Spain	3 – 7	Finland

Team	W	L	D	PF	PA	PD
China (CHN)	4	1	0	57	25	+32
Sweden (SWE)	4	1	0	41	30	+11
Canada (CAN)	2	3	0	27	30	−3
United States (USA)	2	3	0	16	37	−21
Iran (IRI)	2	3	0	29	34	−5
Brazil (BRA)	1	4	0	25	39	−14

2008-09-07
Sweden	8 – 6	Brazil
Canada	9 – 5	Iran
United States	3 – 13	China
2008-09-08
China	13 – 8	Sweden
United States	2 – 8	Canada
Brazil	5 – 8	Iran
2008-09-09
China	11 – 2	Canada
Sweden	10 – 5	Iran
Brazil	4 – 6	United States
2008-09-10
Iran	3 – 4	United States
China	14 – 4	Brazil
Canada	5 – 6	Sweden
2008-09-11
Canada	3 – 6	Brazil
Sweden	9 – 1	United States
Iran	8 – 6	China

	Quarterfinals (2008-09-12)					Semifinals (2008-09-13)					Gold medal game (2008-09-14)
	1	Lithuania	10
	8	Canada	0
						Lithuania		10
						Sweden		3
	4	Sweden	4
	5	Denmark	2
											Lithuania		8
											China		9
	2	Slovenia	2
	7	United States	4
						United States		0			Bronze medal game
						China		4
	3	China	7								Sweden		5
	6	Finland	6								United States		2

2008-09-12
11/12th classification

Spain

3 – 7

Brazil

2008-09-13
5-8th classification

Canada	6 - 5	Finland
Slovenia	4 - 6	Denmark

2008-09-14
7/8th classification

Slovenia

5 - 6

Finland

5/6th classification

Denmark

5 - 8

Canada

The eight women's teams will play a single round robin tournament. The top four teams advance to the semi-final to compete for 1st through 4th place.

Team	W	D	L	PF	PA	PD
China (CHN)	6	1	0	21	7	+14
United States (USA)	4	2	1	18	11	+7
Denmark (DEN)	4	2	1	13	9	+4
Sweden (SWE)	3	1	3	30	27	+3
Canada (CAN)	2	3	2	15	13	+2
Brazil (BRA)	2	1	4	21	24	−3
Japan (JPN)	2	0	5	8	16	−8
Germany (GER)	0	0	7	8	27	−19

2008-09-07
China	5 – 3	Brazil
Canada	3 – 3	Sweden
United States	2 – 0	Japan
Denmark	4 – 1	Germany
2008-09-08
United States	2 – 0	Denmark
China	3 – 0	Germany
Brazil	6 – 5	Canada
Sweden	4 – 1	Japan
2008-09-09
Canada	3 – 0	Japan
Brazil	3 – 1	Germany
Sweden	1 – 2	Denmark
China	4 – 0	United States
2008-09-10
Germany	0 – 1	Canada
Japan	1 – 2	Denmark
Sweden	3 – 5	China
Brazil	2 – 2	United States
2008-09-11
Japan	1 – 3	China
Brazil	4 – 5	Sweden
Germany	0 – 4	United States
Canada	2 – 2	Denmark
2008-09-12
United States	1 – 1	Canada
Denmark	0 – 0	China
Japan	3 – 1	Brazil
Germany	5 – 10	Sweden
2008-09-13
Denmark	3 – 2	Brazil
Germany	1 – 2	Japan
United States	7 – 4	Sweden
Canada	0 – 1	China

	Semifinals					Gold medal game
		United States	4
		Denmark	3
							United States	6
							China	5
		China	1 (3)
		Sweden	1 (2)			Bronze medal game
							Denmark	3
							Sweden	2

China-Sweden PSC

• "Schedules and Results – Goalball". The Beijing Organizing Committee for the Games of the XXIX Olympiad. Archived from the original on 2008-09-12. Retrieved 2008-09-13.

• Official site of the 2008 Summer Paralympics
• The Audio Sports Network produced live audio broadcasts of every game of the tournament, and you can listen to the free mp3 audio archive by clicking on this link