The Quiet Collaboration Between Paralympic Athletes and Their Assistants

To prevent her from influencing Polychronidis’s aim, the rules require Patroni to keep her back turned to the game at all times. Her husband, who uses a motorized wheelchair because his spinal muscular atrophy limits his mobility, gives instructions to her after consulting handwritten notecards that contain information about the different weights of the balls, ramp angles and trajectories.

“Every ball is different,” he said. “They’re my friends.”

After Patroni sets a ball onto the ramp, Polychronidis taps it into motion using a pointer attached to his head. She can hear its impact with other balls and read the look on her husband’s face to know if it has met its target.

They train six hours a day. They are raising their 3-year-old daughter, Valentina, while maintaining a competition schedule that takes them all over the world. Bocce, more than most Paralympic sports, is full of competitors aided by family members — siblings, spouses, parents — largely, Polychronidis said, because of the cost of competition. Before Patroni took on the role, his father, Daniel, was his ramp aide. Polychronidis said he plans to compete in three more Paralympics so that Valentina can take over.

It costs more than 1,000 euros to enter a World Cup competition in bocce, and the added expense of travel for the athlete and an aide makes for a pricey lifestyle. “So you can understand that it’s the family budget that takes all this expenses,” Polychronidis said. His sponsors defray costs.

A six-time Paralympic medalist (one gold, three silver, two bronze) before these Games, Polychronidis lost his last match of the bocce qualifiers on Saturday after a few stunning tosses from his opponent, Mateus Carvalho of Brazil, late in the match. Polychronidis moved to the next round anyway because he had won the first two matches of the preliminary round. He went on to win the bronze medal.