2025/01/10
On December 3, 2024, the All Keio Student Council and the Keio University Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion held a collaborative event, "Boccia × Keio Students: Building Community Through Parasports," at the Hiyoshi Campus. This event was held with the aim of inviting a leading figure in parasports to introduce its appeal to as many Keio students as possible.
Leading up to the Event
The All Keio Student Council is a student self-governing body operated with student association fees collected from all Keio students, with the goal of improving student welfare. At the suggestion of the Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, the All Keio Student Council decided to also hold an event during the 2024 Kyosei Environment Promotion Week. It was a great honor to participate in the Kyosei Environment Promotion Week, which celebrated its fifth anniversary in 2024. At the same time, we wanted to create an unprecedented event that focused on Keio students. Therefore, noting that past Kyosei Environment Promotion Week events were often talk events or workshops and that university students enjoy physical activity, we decided to hold a hands-on event. Furthermore, as 2024 was an Olympic year, we aimed to further introduce Keio students to the appeal of the Paralympics, which have been gaining attention in recent years. With this background, the project began, and with the cooperation of the Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, we were able to invite Mr. Mitsuteru Murakami, who served as the head coach for the Japanese national boccia team at the Tokyo Paralympics.
The Event Itself
The event was a great success, with over 30 participants, including Keio students from various faculties and university staff. It began with a hands-on boccia experience. For this event, we played boccia with simplified rules and a simplified court, rather than the official rules used in the Olympics. Participants were divided into four teams and played a round-robin tournament, resulting in exciting matches regardless of age or gender.
In boccia, players are divided into a red team and a blue team. The first player throws the white jack ball, followed by a ball of their own team's color. Then, the other team throws their colored ball. From that point on, the team whose ball is not closest to the jack ball continues to throw until they run out of balls. In the end, the team with the colored ball closest to the jack ball wins.
The appeal of boccia is that anyone can enjoy it. The strategies are endless, such as how to knock away an opponent's ball or how to throw your ball close to the jack ball. The balls are not heavy, so gender, age, or athletic ability were completely irrelevant. However, it is not without physical activity, and for those of us who had never been exposed to parasports before, it felt like a novel combination of Othello and exercise. Another appeal of boccia is the communication within the team. Since there are countless strategies in boccia, sharing ideas as a team makes you stronger. During the matches, each team naturally held strategy meetings and cheered each other on, quickly breaking the ice and enjoying the competition.
After the hands-on boccia matches, Mr. Murakami gave a talk. We heard about recent trends in sports and about boccia at the Paralympics. Through this experience, we learned that although the Paralympics are still less recognized by the public compared to the Olympics, they possess an appeal and depth comparable to Olympic sports. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to everyone who cooperated with and participated in this event.
Future Aspirations
We believe that through this hands-on event, we were able to spread the appeal of parasports to the participants. We also feel that we were able to plan a hands-on event for the Kyosei Environment Promotion Week from a unique student perspective. The All Keio Student Council will continue to strive to provide all Keio students with a more fulfilling campus life. We also hope to collaborate with Keio University to build an even better Keio University that both current Keio students and Keio University alumni can be proud of.
Daiki Kido, Executive Officer, All Keio Student Council
◆ All Keio Student Council Website