Why do all players wear eyeshades in Goalball?

All players wear eyeshades in Goalball to equalize the playing field, ensuring that individuals with varying degrees of visual impairment can compete fairly against one another. In a sport where visual impairments are the norm, providing each athlete with eyeshades levels the playing conditions by limiting or removing any residual sight that could offer one player an advantage over another.

This practice emphasizes the importance of the competition itself, which relies heavily on auditory cues, such as the sound of the bell inside the ball and the movements of opponents. By wearing eyeshades, all players participate under the same conditions, allowing their skills, strategies, and teamwork to dictate the outcome of the game instead of differing levels of sight.

In contrast, while protecting the eyes and enhancing hearing might seem beneficial in various contexts, those reasons do not directly relate to the fundamental purpose of eyeshades in Goalball. Enhancing focus could be a side effect of the uniformity in vision loss, but it is not the primary reason behind the use of eyeshades in the sport.