Belarus competed at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 7 to 18 September 2016. They delegated 20 athletes (10 men, 10 women) to the Summer Paralympics.[1] They competed in athletics, judo, rowing, swimming and wheelchair fencing.[2]
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.[3][4] 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.[5]
One pathway for qualifying for Rio involved having a boat have top eight finish at the 2015 FISA World Rowing Championships in a medal event. Belarus qualified for the 2016 Games under this criterion in the AS Women's Single Sculls event with a fifth-place finish in a time of 05:38.39.[6][7]
The top two finishers in each Rio medal event at the 2015 IPC Swimming World Championships earned a qualifying spot for their country for Rio. Ihar Boki earned Belarus a spot after winning gold in the Men's 50m Freestyle S13.[8][9]
^"Rowing Qualification"(PDF). International Paralympic Committee. 2015. Archived from the original(PDF) on 25 December 2015. Retrieved 25 December 2015.
^"Swimming QUALIFICATION"(PDF). International Paralympic Committee. 2014. Archived from the original(PDF) on 27 December 2015. Retrieved 26 December 2015.
^"Daily Medallists". International Paralympic Committee. July 2015. Archived from the original on 25 July 2015. Retrieved 26 December 2015.
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