Introducing Stephen McGuire, his life in Boccia and how he has responded to the challenges of the pandemic.
I have a condition called Muscular Dystrophy or MD for short. MD is a group of diseases that cause progressive weakness and loss of muscle mass. It’s a degenerative condition which causes you to get weaker. As of yet there is no cure, however there are therapies which can help slow down the progressiveness. Sport and being active has been the catalyst in slowing down the degenerative nature of my MD
I began my sporting journey back in 2004. I have always had a passion for the Paralympics and always knew that competing for ParalympicsGB would be my dream. After Athens 2004 Games had finished I send numerous emails and letters away trying to find a sport which I would physically be able to do. At this time the dream was to compete at a Paralympic games, I had the drive and ambition to throw myself into any sport I could find. In the end Boccia found me. Of all the emails I had sent away a lady called Jacqueline Lynn replied. Jacqui had just returned from Athens as head coach of GB Boccia. She invited me along to watch the Scottish Open in January 2005 and instantly I fell in love with the sport and have been privileged to represent Scotland and GB ever since.
Boccia being a precision based tactical sport takes years to master. I always knew I had the ability to play the shots but I was never tactically astute enough to control matches. This meant it took me 6 years to win my 1st international ranking match. Since 2010 I have been ranked inside the worlds top 10 and been privileged to have enjoyed so much success. I’ve been able to lead the BC4 Boccia Pair into London 2012, a home games which was the best experience anyone could wish for, and into Rio 2016.
The pinnacle of my career came in 2016 where I became individual world champion in Beijing, defeating home favourite Zheng in the final. From this achievement I had my most consistent season in 2017 losing only 2 matches in a calendar year whilst becoming European Champion and World Open Champion to add to my World Championship title. This propelled me to World number 1 which I was able to hold onto for a year. Going forward I hope to lead the team into my 3rd Paralympic games in Tokyo 2021 and fight for the only medal missing from my collection.
My initial reaction to the Tokyo Games being halted was disappointment. We were into the final preparations for the Games, looking at tactics and planning our lead into Tokyo. So to have that stop overnight was not easy. Being Postponed as opposed to cancelled still gave me the motivation to keep focused.
The pandemic has certainly changed the course of our sport. Boccia has athletes with severe impairments and mainly called as vulnerable if they catch Covid. As a result all competition has been cancelled for over 1 year and the 1st time we meet to compete again will be in Tokyo. It’ll be 20 months since I sat on court with my international rivals which is incredible.
Throughout the pandemic I spent 6 months training from home. It’s not been easy throwing boccia balls with only 4.5m of space. But we did everything we could like playing catch over the garden wall to setting up sofa cushions to absorb the impact of power shots. We quickly established a home based gym environment. I have purchased a handbike which has been a lifesaver – 3x per week I will have virtual handbike session with my team mates. SDS have been innovative by creating us yoga and stretching sessions online to keep us in the best shape. Then in October last year I returned to court. It’s still not back to normal as I train on my own without team mates or support staff there. However having that covid secure bridge to boccia and home has allowed me to keep up with everything I need to do.
I hope that Boccia can get back to where it was before with Multiple international competitions each year. We do have to be careful and recognise that boccia athletes are high risk. Boccia is a sport growing world wide year on year. It has been great to be part of it for the past 17 years and fingers crossed that the pandemic does not hinder boccia athletes getting together much longer to do what we love.