Every participant at the Paralympics has their disability grouped into one of five disability categories; amputation, the condition may be congenital or sustained through injury or illness; cerebral palsy; wheelchair athletes, there is often overlap between this and other categories; visual impairment, including blindness; Les autres, any physical disability that does not fall strictly under one of the other categories, for example dwarfism or multiple sclerosis.[2][3] Each Paralympic sport 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, divide athletes by both the category and severity of their disabilities, other sports, for example swimming, group competitors from different categories together, the only separation being based on the severity of the disability.[4]
With one pathway for qualification being one highest ranked NPCs on the UCI Para-Cycling male and female Nations Ranking Lists on 31 December 2014, Austria qualified for the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio, assuming they continued to meet all other eligibility requirements.[5][6]
One pathway for qualifying for Rio involved having a boat have top seven finish at the 2015 Combined World Championships in a medal event where the country had nor already qualified through via the 2014 IFDS Sailing World Championships. Austria qualified for the 2016 Games under this criterion in the 2.4m event with a ninth-place finish overall and the first country who had not qualified via the 2014 Championships. The boat was crewed by Sven Reiger.[8][9][10]
^"CYCLING QUALIFICATION"(PDF). International Paralympic Committee. 2014. Archived from the original(PDF) on 25 December 2015. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
^"EQUESTRIAN"(PDF). FEI. International Paralympic Committee. August 24, 2016. Retrieved August 24, 2016.
^"Sailing Qualification"(PDF). International Paralympic Committee. 2015. Archived from the original(PDF) on 25 December 2015. Retrieved 25 December 2015.
^"2.4m". Royal Yacht Club Victoria. 2015. Retrieved 25 December 2015.
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