Yushae DeSilva-Andrade heads into action at her second Paralympic Games full of excitement.

DeSilva-Andrade heads into her first Boccia game at 1pm Bermuda time on Thursday and she has been preparing hard in France as she attempts to bring home Bermuda’s first-ever medal from the Games.

“I arrived in Paris on Friday afternoon,” DeSilva-Andrade said.

“It feels a little like the first time in the shock of it all but it is great to see my friends, different people and be a part of history. I love it and it’s awesome to be around the people out here. There are good vibes and the courts are in my favourite colour, purple, so that’s pretty cool.

“I’ve been training for the past few days and getting ready for the competition. It’s been going really well so I’m really excited to get started and see what happens.”

The 31-year-old is approaching her event full of confidence after a string of fine recent performances but she is not getting carried away with her success.

“I had a competition in Portugal in July and I finished second there so that gave me even more confidence for the Paralympics and I’ve just been training hard ever since,” DeSilva-Andrade said.

“I just feel a bit more confident this time around. Rio was my first one and it was more nerve-racking but I feel a lot more comfortable this time. I’m just trying to stay relaxed, calm, and play every game to the best of my ability. I will just play what’s in front of me and go from there.

If DeSilva-Andrade progresses to the latter stages of the competition, she will be competing for five days in the longest tournament she has played.

“I play over a few days and if I keep advancing I will be playing until Monday and then I will have a rest day and hopefully go to see Jessica [Lewis] race,” she said.

“I think I’ll cope well and the rest day will give me time to reboot as I know I’m going to hit that wall as it’s going to be a long couple of days.

“But I know a lot of people at home are going to try to watch it if it is televised or on YouTube. There are a lot of people behind me, which is pretty cool.”

Troy Farnsworth, who forms part of the coaching team, revealed that DeSilva-Andrade’s medal hopes have been boosted by the reclassification of one of the few athletes ranked higher than her.

“Yushae actually goes in ranked third because one of the players above her in world rankings just got classified out of the competition before the Paralympics,” Farnsworth said.

“She has beaten the world No 1 twice in the last 12 months and she has been on the podium four times in the last year. She has a realistic chance of a medal but it’s just about taking one game at a time.

“All the players at this level are high calibre, which is why they are here. It’s just about progressing from the pool, which is the first goal, and go from there.”

Farnsworth has been pleased with the improvements DeSilva-Andrade has shown mentally as she becomes accustomed to being one of the best players in the world.

“Over many years, Yushae’s resilience and the mental side of her game has really improved and she is a fighter,” Farnsworth said.

“She’s taken her mentality to another level in the last couple of years and the results have followed. She has that self-belief that she can beat these players and she will give it her best.

“At this level anybody is capable of beating anybody else on any given day. Boccia can be a close game so we do not need to put added pressure on and look at rankings.

“We view every player Yushae comes up against as a tough competitor, whether they are first in the world or 30th in the world.

“We take the same approach to every match. Anything can happen in boccia, there can be see-sawing matches and things can happen that you do not expect. But hopefully the results will come because you have no control over how your opponent plays but we know Yushae will stay totally focused on her game.”