http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/13/sports/in-paralympic-goalball-resourceful-listeners-face-a-hard-thrower.html 2016-09-12 23:09:24 In Paralympic Goalball, Resourceful Listeners Face a Hard Thrower In this sport for the visually impaired, blindfolded athletes try to throw a heavy basketball-size ball containing bells into a goal as opponents try to block it with their bodies. === RIO DE JANEIRO — In men’s goalball, a sport for the visually impaired that, kind of, sort of, resembles a mix of handball and bowling, countries tend to have distinct playing styles. Finland excels at accuracy. China throws bounce balls. Brazil mixes speeds well. Then there is Lithuania. “They can throw it through anybody,” Matt Simpson, a member of the United States team, said. Lithuania’s foremost practitioner of that tactic works in a library in Vilnius, the capital. His name is The objective in When teams play Lithuania and Pavliukianec, those cues arrive just a bit faster. Heading into Monday’s goalball competition at the “I don’t do rankings of the players,” Lithuania’s coach, Karolis Levickis, said through an interpreter when asked to assess Pavliukianec’s place in the sport. “But it’s like a card game. Each player is like a different card, and he is the highest card.” Goalball has a small but devoted following in Lithuania, where Pavliukianec and his teammates train in the gym of a high school. It has a court, complete with raised lines that notify players where they are, that has been adapted for goalball, which emerged from the darkness of World War II as equal parts rehabilitation and pastime for visually impaired veterans in Europe. It has since spread to all corners of the world, from Oman to Venezuela, Malaysia to Belgium, though Lithuania’s status as a power has not wavered. Most elite nations, United States Coach Mike Lege said, have one standout player. For almost two decades, that player for Lithuania has been Pavliukianec, 40, who has won two Paralympic silver medals — in 2000 in Sydney and in 2008 in Beijing — but covets the gold that has eluded him. At Future Arena on Saturday, the boisterous Brazilian spectators urged on Pavliukianec, chanting his name during breaks in action — and only then. Since players need total silence to pick up their auditory cues during competition, noise is strictly prohibited while the ball is in play. The pace is fast. From the time a ball contacts the defense, a team has 10 seconds to shoot. Pavliukianec plays on the left wing, where he likes to fire crosscourt shots, hard and low, into the far corner. Even if they make a save, his teammates tend to give the ball back to Pavliukianec anyway. Against the United States, he took 53 of Lithuania’s 92 shots, and all four of its penalties. Unlike some other players who rotate their whole body before unleashing the ball, as if throwing a discus, Pavliukianec takes a few short steps, then does a quarter turn, generating tremendous torque. Levickis was reluctant to discuss Pavliukianec’s technique other than to compare it to that of a javelin thrower, who runs to gather momentum before releasing. “It’s a gift,” Levickis said. Speaking through an interpreter, Pavliukianec deflected most questions about himself. He said he did not think he played well against the Americans. He said he has a friendly relationship with some opponents, especially those from Ukraine and Finland, but that no one had ever commented on his velocity. As to how he polished that skill, he said: “There’s nothing very special. Just training.” Pavliukianec has been just training since 1991, he said, when he learned to play goalball at a school for the visually impaired. The game changed his life, but it is not a full-time job. A technical guru, he works with audiobooks. In his spare time, he likes crafting objects from wood. Usually that means toys for his daughter, but recently he constructed a table and benches. It should come as no surprise that he did it fast, he did it accurately and he did it well.