Boccia Australia is pleased to introduce a new monthly series, 'Meet the Athlete'.

Each month BA will introduce an athlete from around the country via the BA Facebook Page. The first athlete in this series is, Jessica Hooper from Victoria.

This is what Jessie has to say about the sport:

'“I saw Boccia being played in the 2020/2021 Paralympics and as soon as I saw it, I went and put forward an expression of interest to join the Victoria team.

I started playing boccia in January of 2022, and on the first day I fell in love with it. I saw it as a sport I could play as a new wheelchair user. The acceptance of the entire team was absolutely amazing, not to mention so started giving them a bit of a hard time!

I see Boccia as something super fun to do with amazing people and friends. I had never played Boccia before this year, or honestly paid much notice before becoming a wheelchair user, but I don't think I can stop now! I am having too much fun!!

The team in Victoria has been nice enough to lend me some Boccia balls at the moment, but so would love to purchase my own, hopefully super soon.

I have made the most amazing friends, especially in my Victoria team. We give each other a hard time, teasing each other and trying our hardest to beat each other at every practice, but these are some great friends that I have made, plus we get to play a cool as sport!

I got to go to Canberra earlier this year after only 4 weeks of training, and won 2 out of 3 of my singles matches, then on the Sunday I got to meet people from other State teams and play with different people. It was definitely a fast learning curve at my first comp, with do's and don't's, plus learning some extra rules and expectations, as well as going way out of my comfort zone".

Jessica is looking forward to the remaining competitions of the year meeting "new people and advancing her competition streak!".

Welcome Jessica and thankyou for sharing your story!

#bocciainaustralia #Bocciaathlete