"It will be very, very close, and a very interesting tournament," Seremeti told paralympic.org.

Sweden will be hoping to put a series of gold medal misses behind them this summer.

The team won bronze at Sydney 2000 (members of the team pictured below), lost to Denmark in the gold medal match at the Paralympics in Athens eight years ago and claimed another bronze in Beijing in 2008.

Having failed to qualify at the 2010 and 2011 World Championships, they nearly did not make it to London though – and had to defeat Turkey 5-2 to finish third in the final of the European Championships last year to qualify.

"Everything got smoother once we knew we were going," added Seremeti, who is enthused at the growing stature of the sport.

"Every sport deserves its own spot in the media and in the spotlight.

"I think that Goalball will be even bigger this time than in the 2008 Paralympics.


"I think the sport is easier to understand today than it was 10 years ago.

"Players are much better at profiling themselves.

"When I started playing Goalball about 15 years ago, there were not many people who knew what the sport was.

"Now, often, people ask when we travel around in our shirts, 'Oh, is it that sport where you have to be blindfolded and you play with a ball that makes sounds?'

"We are amazed, like, 'Oh, people know now'.

"I'm looking forward to the future to see what will happen."

Sweden will have to make it out of a tough group in London to continue their pursuit of a gold medal.

They face both the World and European champions Lithuania and Finland, hosts Britain, as well as Turkey and Brazil.

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