Known for his whacky hair colours and aggressive playing style, David Smith has earnt the impressive title of world-champion of his chosen sport and has lived out the dream of many athletes through travelling the world and representing Team GB. But the 34-year-old- who has lived in Swansea since moving there for university in 2008- said there were other more exciting sports on offer when he first took up the lesser-known precision ball sport of boccia.

David is originally from Eastleigh in Hampshire and was first diagnosed with cerebral palsy when he was one. "I went to a boarding school called Treloar's in Hampshire and it was a cross between Hogwarts and St. Trinian's for disabled kids. We did all sorts of stuff like drama, music and sports. Boccia wasn't the most exciting sport we played but it meant that I could get out of homework on a Monday evening," said David.

David started playing weekly and soon became British champion at just 14. Four years later, while he was at college, David became world champion and went on to play his first Paralympic game where his team took home a gold medal. "Because of the nature of my disability, with all the other sports that I enjoyed like hockey, football or athletics, there was a certain level and then the competitions would stop," David explained. You can get more Swansea news and other story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.

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"But with boccia, there was always another competition. That was all the way up to the Paralympic games. The draw for boccia was there was always a bigger challenge up until travelling the world and going to the biggest competitions. Then winning becomes a habit and it was an ego boost. I became addicted to it. That just kept on driving me forward really. Then, as I got better at the sport, I started appreciating it a bit more."

When he went to Swansea University to study Aerospace Engineering, David said he used his new gold medal to get free drinks in Swansea's bars in The Kingsway. "The Welsh love a hero. I remember we went to the old Oceana in Swansea and the lift was broken so we were at the top part of the bar and the owners came in and gave us a free bottle of champagne."

But despite the free drinks and fun parties on offer, David's move to the city left him with no local scene for a sport that was already a massive part of his life. "There was no boccia at all in Swansea. I came and I had a couple of friends at university who are also disabled so I linked with them and that's how we started Swansea Boccia Club. There were no facilities at Swansea University to do disability sport at that point so we basically did it off our own backs."

The boccia sessions started in LC2 in 2010 and have been running regularly ever since with former Welsh champions training at the club. As a world champion, David's training schedule has become "pretty much a full-time job" and before the Covid pandemic he was trained for around 25 hours a week. Now he is preparing for the Paralympic Games in Paris next year but said that, as he gets older, his training schedule has eased as he mainly focuses on "managing [his] body."

David uses an electric wheelchair and has live-in carers who support him with some everyday tasks. The accomplished athlete explained that boccia was the "most inclusive sport in the Paralympics" and the only sport that goes to the Paralympic games with one-to-one care support.

"We're the most severely disabled in the Paralympics. So, there's no athletes like us in other Paralympic sports. We're the only sport that goes to the Paralympic games with 1-1 care support. If you play boccia, there isn't really another sport you can play at that level. Boccia is in a unique position where it provides people with my sort of disability the opportunity to play at the highest level on equal terms with other people. Feeling like you're part of something and being included- it's what society should be like but isn't always," he said.