Brazil at the Paralympics

Brazil made its Paralympic Games debut at the 1972 Summer Paralympics in Heidelberg, sending representatives to compete in track and field, archery, swimming and wheelchair basketball. The country has competed in every edition of the Summer Paralympics since.

Brazil at the Paralympics
IPC code	BRA
NPC	Brazilian Paralympic Committee
Website	www.cpb.org.br
Medals Ranked 16th	Gold 135 Silver 161 Bronze 172 Total 468
Summer appearances
1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020 2024
Winter appearances
2014 2018 2022

Until the 2024 Summer Paralympics, Brazilians have won a total of 467 Paralympic medals, of which 135 golds, 161 silvers and 171 bronzes. This places the country 16th on the all-time Paralympic Games medal table.

Brazil's first delegations experienced little success. No medals were won in 1972, and the country's only medal in 1976 was a silver, in the men's pairs in lawn bowls (through Robson S. Almeida and Luiz Carlos Costa). There were no medals either in 1980, but Brazilian Paralympians found notable success as from 1984, where they obtained their first gold: M. Ferraz won five silver medals and one gold in track and field; Márcia Malsar took three medals in athletics, of which the first gold for a Brazilian athlete; Luis Claúdio Pereira won four medals, of which two gold, in track and field; as did Amintas Piedade. Swimmer Maria Jussara Matas obtained three medals, of which one gold, while Marcelo Amorim won four medals (three swimming and a bronze), also in swimming.

Pereira won three of Brazil's four gold medals in 1988, the fourth coming from swimmer Graciana Moreira Alves. In 1992, four Brazilian athletes each won a gold medal in track and field, while the country's two gold in 1996 were won in swimming (José Arnulfo Medeiros) and Judo (Antônio Tenório). Da Silva took another gold in 2000, adding to Brazil's four golds in track and field and one in swimming that year. The 2004 Games saw the country's best result to date, with fourteen gold medals, of which five in athletics. Swimmer Clodoaldo Silva became Brazil's most successful Paralympian in history, winning six gold medals in the pool, and Brazil also started the men's football 5-a-side dominination, defeating Argentina in a penalty shoot-out in the final. (In the 7-a-side event, Brazil finished second, after a 1–4 defeat to Ukraine.) In 2008, athletics provided another four gold medals, boccia two, Judo one, and swimming eight (four each from Daniel Dias and André Brasil). In football, Brazil finished fourth in the 7-a-side event, with losses to Ukraine (0-6) and Iran (0-4) in the final round. The country did, however, successfully defend for the first time its Paralympic title in 5-a-side football, defeating China 2–1 in the final.

Brazil debuted at the 2014 Winter Paralympics in Sochi, sending two athletes. This made Brazil the second tropical nation ever to have competed at the Winter Paralympics, after Uganda and the third country in South America to have done so, the others being Chile and Argentina.

Medal tables

See also: All-time Paralympic Games medal table

Medals by Summer Games

This are the historical medal table for Brasil at the Summer Paralympics. This medal table also includes the 5 medals (1 gold, 3 silvers and 1 bronze) won at the 1992 Summer Paralympics for Intellectually Disabled, held in Madrid, who also organized by then International Coordenation Committee (ICC) and same Organizing Committee (COOB'92) who made the gestion of the 1992 Summer Paralympics held in Barcelona and also part of same event. But the results are not on the International Paralympic Committee 's (IPC) database.

Games	Athletes	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total	Rank
1960 Rome	did not participate
1964 Tokyo
1968 Tel-Aviv
1972 Heidelberg	8	0	0	0	0	–
1976 Toronto	23	0	1	0	1	31
1980 Arnhem	2	0	0	0	0	–
1984 Stoke Mandeville 1984 New York	30	7	17	4	28	24
1988 Seoul	59	4	9	15	28	24
1992 Barcelona-Madrid	41	4	3	5	12	28
1996 Atlanta	60	2	6	13	21	37
2000 Sydney	63	6	10	6	22	24
2004 Athens	96	14	12	7	33	14
2008 Beijing	187	16	14	17	47	9
2012 London	181	21	14	8	43	7
2016 Rio de Janeiro	285	14	29	29	72	8
2020 Tokyo	258	22	20	30	72	7
2024 Paris	255	25	26	38	89	5
2028 Los Angeles	Future event
2032 Brisbane	Future event
Total	1,264	135	161	172	468	16

Winter Paralympics

Games	Athletes	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total	Rank
1976 Örnsköldsvik	did not participate
1980 Geilo
1984 Innsbruck
1988 Innsbruck
1992 Tignes-Albertville
1994 Lillehammer
1998 Nagano
2002 Salt Lake City
2006 Turin
2010 Vancouver
2014 Sochi	2	0	0	0	0	–
2018 PyeongChang	3	0	0	0	0	–
2022 Beijing	6	0	0	0	0	–
2026 Milan-Cortina	Future events
2030 French Alps
2034 Salt Lake City
Total	11	0	0	0	0	–

Medals by Sport 1960–2024

  Leading in that sport

Sport	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
Athletics	59	84	68	211
Swimming	47	48	56	151
Judo	9	11	13	33
Boccia	6	1	4	11
Football 5-a-side	5	0	1	6
Powerlifting	3	1	2	6
Paracanoeing	2	4	2	8
Parataekwondo	2	1	2	5
Goalball	1	1	3	5
Wheelchair fencing	1	1	0	2
Table tennis	0	3	9	12
Equestrian	0	1	4	5
Football 7-a-side	0	1	2	3
Cycling	0	1	1	2
Lawn bowls	0	1	0	1
Paratriathlon	0	1	0	1
Shooting	0	1	0	1
Rowing	0	0	2	2
Volleyball	0	0	2	2
Badminton	0	0	1	1
Totals (20 entries)	135	161	172	468

Source:

Best results in non-medalling sports:

Summer
Sport	Rank	Athlete	Event & Year
Archery	4th	Luciano Rezende	Men's individual recurve open in 2016
Wheelchair basketball	5th	Brazil men's team	Men's tournament in 2016
Wheelchair rugby	8th	Brazil mixed team	Mixed tournament in 2016
Wheelchair tennis	4th	Leandro Pena & Ymanitu Silva	Quad doubles in 2024
Winter
Sport	Rank	Athlete	Event & Year
Alpine skiing	28th	André Pereira	Men's snowboard cross in 2014
Biathlon	Did not participate
Cross-country skiing	6th	Cristian Ribera	Men's 15 km sitting in 2018
Para ice hockey	Did not participate
Snowboarding	10th	André Cintra	Men's banked slalom SB-LL1 in 2018
			Men's snowboard cross SB-LL1 in 2018
Wheelchair curling	Did not participate

Flagbearers

Summer Paralympics

Games	Athlete	Sport
1960 Rome	did not participate
1964 Tokyo
1968 Tel-Aviv
1972 Heidelberg	Not documented
1976 Toronto
1980 Arnhem
1984 New York 1984 Stoke Mandeville
1988 Seoul
1992 Barcelona
1996 Atlanta	Anderson Santos	Athletics
2000 Sydney	Ádria Santos	Athletics
	Luís Silva	Swimming
2004 Athens	José Afonso Medeiros	Swimming
2008 Beijing	Antônio Tenório Silva	Judo
2012 London	Daniel Dias	Swimming
2016 Rio de Janeiro	Shirlene Coelho	Athletics
2020 Tokyo	Evelyn de Oliveira	Boccia
	Petrúcio Ferreira	Athletics
2024 Paris	Elizabeth Gomes	Athletics
	Gabriel Araújo	Swimming

Winter Paralympics

Games	Athlete	Sport
1976 Örnsköldsvik	did not participate
1980 Geilo
1984 Innsbruck
1988 Innsbruck
1992 Tignes-Albertville
1994 Lillehammer
1998 Nagano
2002 Salt Lake City
2006 Turin
2010 Vancouver
2014 Sochi	André Pereira	Alpine skiing
2018 PyeongChang	Aline Rocha	Cross-country skiing
2022 Beijing	Cristian Ribera	Cross-country skiing
	Aline Rocha	Cross-country skiing

See also

• Brazil at the Olympics