Greece competed at the
2016 Summer Paralympics
)
, nations = 159
, athletes = 4,342
, opening = 7 September
, closing = 18 September
, opened_by = President Michel Temer
, cauldron = Clodoaldo Silva
, events = 528 in 22 sports
, stadium = Maracanã
, sum ...
in
Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...
, Brazil, from 7 September to 18 September 2016. The first places the team qualified were for three athletes in sailing events.
Funding and support
Funding for Greece's national Paralympic committee comes through the Greek
Ministry of Sports
A Ministry of Sports or Ministry of Youth and Sports is a kind of government ministry found in certain countries with responsibility for the regulation of sports, particularly those participated in by young people.
The Ministry of Youth and Spo ...
and the
General Secretariat of Sports. While Greek Paralympians get some support from their national sport federations, many were also getting support from the Greek NPC. The economic situation in the country led to less funding from the government, which caused the Greeks rely more on sponsorship to serve a stop gap measure. One of the biggest sponsors was OPAP, Greece's national lottery. In a few cases, Greek athletes had to self-fund if they wanted to participate internationally as their NPC did not have the funds. In 2013, there was also a tremendous discrepancy in funding between Paralympic sport and Olympic sport, with the Olympic side getting €1,400,000 while the Paralympic side got €200,000.
Disability classifications
Every participant at the Paralympics has their disability grouped into one of five
disability categories;
amputation
Amputation is the removal of a limb by trauma, medical illness, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as malignancy or gangrene. In some cases, it is carried out on indi ...
, the condition may be congenital or sustained through injury or illness;
cerebral palsy
Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of movement disorders that appear in early childhood. Signs and symptoms vary among people and over time, but include poor coordination, stiff muscles, weak muscles, and tremors. There may be problems with sensa ...
;
wheelchair
A wheelchair is a chair with wheels, used when walking is difficult or impossible due to illness, injury, problems related to old age, or disability. These can include spinal cord injuries ( paraplegia, hemiplegia, and quadriplegia), cerebr ...
athletes, there is often overlap between this and other categories;
visual impairment
Visual impairment, also known as vision impairment, is a medical definition primarily measured based on an individual's better eye visual acuity; in the absence of treatment such as correctable eyewear, assistive devices, and medical treatment†...
, including
blindness
Visual impairment, also known as vision impairment, is a medical definition primarily measured based on an individual's better eye visual acuity; in the absence of treatment such as correctable eyewear, assistive devices, and medical treatment†...
;
Les autres
Les Autres sport classification is system used in disability sport for people with locomotor disabilities not included in other classification systems for people with physical disabilities. The purpose of this system is to facilitate fair competiti ...
, any physical disability that does not fall strictly under one of the other categories, for example
dwarfism
Dwarfism is a condition wherein an organism is exceptionally small, and mostly occurs in the animal kingdom. In humans, it is sometimes defined as an adult height of less than , regardless of sex; the average adult height among people with dw ...
or
multiple sclerosis
Multiple (cerebral) sclerosis (MS), also known as encephalomyelitis disseminata or disseminated sclerosis, is the most common demyelinating disease, in which the insulating covers of nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord are damaged. This d ...
.
Each
Paralympic sport
The Paralympic sports comprise all the sports contested in the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games. As of 2020, the Summer Paralympics included 22 sports and 539 medal events, and the Winter Paralympics include 5 sports and disciplines and about ...
then has its own classifications, dependent upon the specific physical demands of competition. Events are given a code, made of numbers and letters, describing the type of event and classification of the athletes competing. Some sports, such as
athletics
Athletics may refer to:
Sports
* Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking
** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport
* Athletics (physical culture), competi ...
, divide athletes by both the category and severity of their disabilities, other sports, for example
swimming
Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...
, group competitors from different categories together, the only separation being based on the severity of the disability.
Medalists
, width=78% align=left valign=top ,
, width=25% align=left valign=top ,
Competitors
The following is the list of number of competitors participating in the Games:
Archery
Dorothea Poimenidou earned Greece a spot at the Rio Games following her performance at the
2015 World Archery Para Championships. She qualified the country after her performance in the women's recurve open.
;Women
Athletics
;Men
;Track
;Field
;Women
;Track
;Field
Boccia
;Individual
;Pairs and Teams
Cycling
Road
;Men
;Women
Track
;Men
;Women
Judo
;Men
Paracanoeing
;Canoe Sprint
;Women
Powerlifting
;Men
Sailing
;Mixed
Shooting
;Mixed
Swimming
;Men
;Women
;Mixed
Wheelchair fencing
;Men
;Women
Wheelchair tennis
Stefanos Diamantis qualified for Rio in the men's singles event via a Bipartite Commission Invitation place.
;Men
See also
*
Greece at the 2016 Summer Olympics
Greece competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. Greek athletes have competed in every Summer Olympic Games of the modern era, alongside Australia, France, Great Britain, and Switzerland. As the pro ...
References
{{NPCin2016SummerParalympics
Nations at the 2016 Summer Paralympics
2016
File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...
2016 in Greek sport