IPC publishes Rio 2016 Qualification Guide

The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) has published the Qualification Guide for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, which describes in detail how athletes and teams can qualify for the sports on the Games programme.

The Rio 2016 Paralympics will take place from 7-18 September 2016, with nearly 4,350 athletes from more than 160 countries expected to contest 528 medal events.

Approximately 1,690 of the athlete participants are expected to be women – a 9.9 per cent increase from London 2012 and more than double the 790 who took part in the Atlanta 1996 Games. They will compete in 226 medal events, equating to 43 per cent of the total number of medal events.

Triathlon and canoe will make their Paralympic Games debuts in Rio, with each sport staging six medal events.

The Rio 2016 qualification period began on 1 January 2014 and sport entries must be submitted for the Games by 15 August 2016.

Qualification criteria for 18 of the 22 sports are included in the guide thus far, with the qualification criteria for the other four sports – canoe, cycling, judo and sailing – expected to come before the end of the month.

Some of the sports on the programme will also offer bipartite invitation commission slots, which are opportunities offered on a discretionary basis by the IPC and the respective International Federation (IF) to athletes, who have not had the chance to meet the qualification criteria due to extraordinary circumstances.

Universality wildcards may also be offered to athletes from National Paralympic Committees (NPCs) that have been unable to qualify any athletes for the Games.

The complete Rio 2016 Paralympic Games Qualification Guide on the IPC’s new Rio 2016 micro-site launched this week at http://www.paralympic.org/rio-2016.

The website also includes the latest news and photos, athlete biographies and Ones to Watch list leading up to Rio 2016.