Greece at the 2016 Summer Paralympics

Greece at the Paralympic Games
Flag of Greece IPC code  GRE NPC Hellenic Paralympic Committee Website www.paralympic.gr
At the 2016 Summer Paralympics in
Competitors	3 in 1 sports
Medals	Gold 0	Silver 0	Bronze 0	Total 0
Paralympic history (summary)
Summer Games
1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016
Winter Games
1976–1998 2002 2006 2010 2014

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.

Disability classifications

Main article: Disability sport classification

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. 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.

Archery

Main article: Archery at the 2016 Summer Paralympics

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.

Cycling

Main article: Cycling at the 2016 Summer Paralympics

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.

Sailing

Main article: Sailing at the 2016 Summer Paralympics

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.

Shooting

Main article: Shooting at the 2016 Summer Paralympics

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.

See also

• Greece at the 2016 Summer Olympics