The Boccia International Sports Federation unveiled its updated world rankings on Monday and Paralympian Alison Levine of Montreal is now ranked number one in the world in the BC4 division.
She is the first female player to hit the top of the rankings in that class.
The 29-year-old Levine moved into the number-one spot with a bronze medal performance this past week at the World Open event in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
“It’s been an objective of mine (to be number one) for the past year so I’m very happy,” Levine told Sportcom. “I was able to show that being number one was not a crazy dream.”
Other highlights for Levine this year are a first and second-place finish at the World Open in Montreal in May. Last season, she was fourth at the world championships.
Levine, in her sixth season on the national team, leads the world rankings with 121.5 points ahead of Boris Nicolai of Germany at 106.5 and Zheng Yuansen of China in third at 105.5. There are 135 players ranked in BC4. Marco Dispaltro of St-Jerome, Que. is 18th and Iulian Ciobanu of Montreal 20th.
Her third-place in Brazil finish puts her in a strong position to qualify for next summer’s Paralympic Games in Tokyo.
“I really want that Paralympic medal,” she said. “My goal is not only to go to Tokyo but to win.” She was fifth at the 2016 Rio Games.
Levine, who has idiopathic muscular dystrophy, previously competed in wheelchair basketball, wheelchair rugby and horseback riding before moving to the more precise sport of boccia which is comparable to lawn bowls.
Levine’s next competition is the World Open stop in Povoa de Varzim, Portugal from October 28 to November 3.
