Greece at the 2016 Summer Paralympics
Greece at the Paralympic Games | ||||||||||||
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At the 2016 Summer Paralympics in | ||||||||||||
Competitors | 3 in 1 sports | |||||||||||
Medals | Gold 0 |
Silver 0 |
Bronze 0 |
Total 0 |
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Paralympic history (summary) | ||||||||||||
Summer Games | ||||||||||||
Winter Games | ||||||||||||
Greece is scheduled to compete at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, 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 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.[1]
Disability classifications
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]
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.[5]
Cycling
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, Greece qualified for the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio, assuming they continued to meet all other eligibility requirements.[6][7]
Sailing
Greece qualified a boat for one of the three sailing classes at the Games through their results at the 2014 Disabled Sailing World Championships held in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. A crew qualified for the three-person Sonar class.[8]
Shooting
The first opportunity to qualify for shooting at the Rio Games took place at the 2014 IPC Shooting World Championships in Suhl. Shooters earned spots for their NPC. The United Arab Emirates earned a qualifying spot at this event in the R4 – 10m Air Rifle Standing Mixed SH2 event as a result of the performance of Evangelos Kakosaios.[9][10][11]
References
- ↑ "The Paralympian" (PDF). International Paralympic Committee. 2013. Retrieved 25 December 2015.
- ↑ "Paralympics categories explained". ABC. 3 September 2008. Retrieved 25 December 2015.
- ↑ "Making sense of the categories". BBC Sport. 6 October 2000. Retrieved 25 December 2015.
- ↑ "A-Z of Paralympic classification". BBC Sport. 28 August 2008. Retrieved 25 December 2015.
- ↑ "DONAUESCHINGEN AWARDS 82 RIO 2016 PARALYMPIC QUOTA PLACES". World Archery Federation. 26 August 2015. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
- ↑ "CYCLING QUALIFICATION" (PDF). International Paralympic Committee. 2014. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
- ↑ "Ranking — PARA — Cycling 2014". UCI. 31 December 2014. Retrieved 24 December 2015.
- ↑ "Ten countries guarantee their place in the Rio 2016 Paralympic sailing competition". Rio 2016 Official Website. 26 August 2014. Retrieved 27 August 2014.
- ↑ "Shooters from 28 countries claim 63 spots at Rio 2016 Paralympic Games". Rio 2016. Retrieved 25 December 2015.
- ↑ "Shooting Qualification" (PDF). International Paralympic Committee. 2014. Retrieved 25 December 2015.
- ↑ "Official Results Book" (PDF). International Paralympic Committee. 31 December 2014. Retrieved 25 December 2015.