Goalball, a sport for people with vision impairments, joined the European Para Youth Games programme in 2017 as one of the first team sports and has been a firm fixture ever since.

The sport also has its origins in Europe having been created in 1946 by Hanz Lorenzen and Sepp Reindl, initially designed to support the rehabilitation of visually impaired World War II veterans. The sport grew in popularity, debuting as a demonstration event at the 1972 Paralympics in Germany. It became an official Paralympic sport in 1976 at the Games in Canada and led to the first World Championships in 1978.

Women joined the competition at the 1984 Paralympics in New York. Over the years, teams from Finland, Denmark and Lithuania have been prominent in the sport whilst countries like Ukraine have also come to the fore in recent years. 

Hosts of the 2025 European Para Youth Games, Türkiye, have enjoyed great success on the global stage in goalball. Their women’s team are the reigning Paralympic champions, unbeaten since 2016. Turkiye are also the defending European Para Youth Games champions whilst Israel hold the title in the men’s.

Goalball is governed by IBSA Goalball..