Austria at the 2016 Summer Paralympics

Support

“Project Rio 2016” was created by the government to support Paralympic athletes seeking to qualify for the Rio Games. The former Austrian Minister of Sport Gerald Klug met with Paralympians Andreas Onea and Sabine Weber-Treiber as part of this program. The current Minister of Sports is Hans Peter Doskozil.

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. 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.

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, Austria qualified for the 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio, assuming they continued to meet all other eligibility requirements.

Equestrian

The country qualified to participate in the team event at the Rio Games.

Paracanoeing

Austria earned a qualifying spot at the 2016 Summer Paralympics in this sport following their performance at the 2015 ICF Canoe Sprint & Paracanoe World Championships in Milan, Italy where the top six finishers in each Paralympic event earned a qualifying spot for their nation. Markus Mendy Swoboda earned the spot for Austria after finishing first in the men's KL2 event.

Sailing

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 criteria 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.

Swimming

Swimmers Andreas Onea and Sabine Weber-Treiber were Paralympic swimmers who benefited from the Austrian government's “Project Rio 2016”.

Wheelchair tennis

Austria qualified two competitors in the men's single event, Nico Langmann and Martin Legner.