| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | 8 June 1990 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country |  Colombia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Boccia | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Disability class | BC4 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Leidy Chica (born 8 June 1990) is a Colombian boccia player. [1] She competed at the 2024 Summer Paralympics and won a bronze medal. [2]
She is the sister of Edilson Chica, who also won a medal in boccia at the 2024 Paralympics. [3]
Boccia is a precision ball sport, similar to bocce, and related to bowls and pétanque. The name "boccia" is derived from the Latin word for "boss" – bottia. The sport is contested at local, national and international levels, by athletes with severe physical disabilities. It was originally designed to be played by people with cerebral palsy but now includes athletes with other severe disabilities affecting motor skills. In 1984, it became a Paralympic sport and as of 2020, 75 boccia national organizations have joined one or more of the international organizations. Boccia is governed by the Boccia International Sports Federation (BISFed) and is one of two Paralympic sports that have no counterpart in the Olympic program, although it is a Paralympic variant of bocce (boules).
Colombia first formally participated at the Olympic Games in 1932, and has sent athletes to compete in all but one edition of the Summer Olympic Games since then, missing only the 1952 Games. Colombian athletes have won a total of 38 Olympic medals in eight different sports, with weightlifting and cycling as the most successful ones. Colombia is the third most successful South American country at the Olympic Games, after Brazil and Argentina respectively. The Colombian Olympic Committee was created in 1936 and recognised by the International Olympic Committee in 1948.
Colombia competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics. The country sent 68 athletes to compete in 15 sports, making this Colombia's largest ever delegation to the Olympics.
Boccia has been contested at the Summer Paralympics since the 1984 Games in New York City and Stoke Mandeville.
Leydi Yesenia Solís Arboleda is a Colombian weightlifter. She won a gold medal at the 2007 Pan American Games for her native South American country, and carried the flag at the opening ceremony. Solís represented Colombia at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, finishing in fourth place in her weight division. She won the – 69 kg gold medal in snatch and clean & jerk during the 2014 Pan American Sports Festival.
Greece, the birthplace of the Ancient Olympic Games that hosted the inaugural 1896 Summer Olympics, did not compete in the Summer Paralympics until 1976 and in the Winter Paralympics until 2002, but since then the Greeks have taken part in every edition of both events. Although the Greek delegation traditionally enters first during the parade of nations at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, this tradition does not apply to the Paralympics, where Greece enters within alphabetical order. The National Paralympic Committee for Greece is the Hellenic Paralympic Committee.
Colombia made its Paralympic Games début at the 1976 Summer Paralympics in Toronto, with competitors taking part in track and field, table tennis and wheelchair basketball. The country has participated in every subsequent edition of the Summer Paralympic Games, except 1984, but has never entered the Winter Paralympic Games.
Pedro Cordero Martín is a Spanish boccia player. He represented Spain at the 2004, 2008 and 2012 Summer Paralympics, winning a bronze medal at both the 2004 and 2008 games in the BC1-BC2 boccia team event.
Manuel Ángel Martín Pérez is a Spanish boccia player who is also known as Manolo Martín. He has cerebral palsy and is a BC2 type athlete.
José Manuel Rodríguez Vázquez is a Spanish boccia player, who has represented the country internationally at the Paralympic Games. Vazquez won a gold medal in the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens.
Daniel Michel is an Australian boccia player. He represented Australia at the 2016 Rio Paralympics and 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. He won the bronze medal in the Mixed B3 at the Tokyo Paralympics. He won two gold medals at the 2022 World Championships.
Cristina Gonçalves is a Portuguese boccia player. She has competed for her country at several Summer Paralympic Games and has won four medals, including two gold medals. She has cerebral palsy since contracting meningitis when she was 11 months old.
Jamieson Leeson is an Australian boccia player. She represented Australia at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympics. She won a gold and silver medal at the 2022 World Championships.
The mixed pairs BC4 boccia event at the 2020 Summer Paralympics was contested between 2 and 4 September 2021 at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre. Since this event is a mixed event, both genders, male and female, competed in the event.
Kirsten De Laender is a Belgian Paralympian. Her first Paralympics was London 2012, where she won a bronze medal in boccia for mixed pairs BC3. De Laender also competed in the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Alison Levine is a Canadian boccia competitor.
Aurélie Aubert is a French boccia player. She is a Paralympic champion at the Summer Paralympics in 2024.
Edilson Chica is a Colombian boccia player. He competed at the 2024 Summer Paralympics, reaching the finals of the men's individual BC4 event.
Noor Askuzaimey Mat Salim is a Malaysian boccia player. She represented Malaysia at the 2024 Summer Paralympics, where she competed in the women's individual and mixed pairs BC4 events.
Stefanía Ferrando is an Argentine boccia player. She is a two-time medalist at the Parapan American Games and a bronze medalist at the Summer Paralympics.
