Paralympic bronze medallist Daniel Michel said discovering Boccia at age 15 was ‘exactly what he’d been looking for his whole life’.
“I saw it on the program at a come and try day and thought it’s a sport like all these other disabled sports that I’ve heard of, but it won’t be for people of my disability,” Michel said.
"But luckily enough, I decided to go along and have a look anyway and when I did, I quickly realised it was a sport that was perfect for people like me. It was exactly what I'd been looking for my whole life.”
Fastforward 13 years and the now 28-year-old is preparing for his third Paralympic Games, with he and BC3 teammate Jamieson Leeson going into Paris as the ones to beat.
The pair, who won the Team of the Year award at last year’s AIS Sport Performance Awards (ASPAs), took a break from their Paris-prep to host an episode of the AIS Win Well Podcast.
Hosted by two-time Olympian Melissa Breen, the AIS Win Well Podcast is a podcast where athletes are in control, with each episode featuring two Olympians and Paralympians in conversation, sharing how they win well both in sport and in life.
Leeson, who moved to Sydney from Dunedoo in country New South Wales to concentrate on the Paralympics, shared how she hopes to use her second Games as a platform to advocate for more opportunities for regional sport.
“It's definitely a passion of mine to get more Boccia into the country because it's something that I struggled with growing up,” Leeson said.
“I didn't have access to Boccia as a kid until I was introduced to it in Sydney. So, it's definitely something that I'm more passionate about getting para sport more into the country.”
Leeson and Michel’s full episode, as well as the rest of the AIS Win Well Podcast series, is available here or on your favourite listening platform.
To learn more about HP 2032+ Strategy and Australian sport’s united vision to ‘win well and inspire Australians’, visit www.winwell2032.au
