LIMA, Peru -- The U.S. goalball teams are both returning home with silver medals around their necks following a highly successful tournament at the 2019 Parapan American Games in Lima, Peru. More importantly, the U.S. men’s team secured their qualification into the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games with their performance. “We had one big, big mission here and that was to qualify the team for Tokyo and we did that,” said team member and 2016 Paralympic silver medalist Matt Simpson (Smyrna, Ga.). In Saturday’s gold medal contest, the U.S. men went up against defending world champion Brazil. In the first half,…
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by Bill Kellick The three big summer holidays of 2019 appear like mile markers on Josh Welborn’s goalball roadmap. Memorial Day weekend saw Welborn’s team take gold at the United States Association of Blind Athletes’ National Championships. Over the Fourth of July week, he led Team USA as the top goal scorer during the International Blind Sports Federation’s Goalball Qualifier. Soon, the summer will come to a close just before Labor Day with the Parapan American Games in Lima, Peru, where the U.S. men’s team is looking to secure its quota spot for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games. Flashback to…
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(July 25, 2019) -- The United States will send a seasoned group of goalball athletes, sprinkled with a few rising stars, to Lima, Peru, to compete at the 2019 Parapan American Games next month. Two-thirds of the men’s and women’s goalball rosters include medalists from the Paralympic Games Rio 2016. For the U.S. men’s goalball team, the Parapan Am Games represent the final opportunity to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games. The team will need to finish on the top step of the podium to secure their ticket to Tokyo next year. Four returning members from the silver-medal winning…
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