Stat sheet: 9 facts from the Rio 2016 Paralympic entry list

Click the entries tab on the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games event page to check the full list of athletes registered to compete in the Sambodromo in September.

Here are nine things we noticed…

1. Defending Champions

Three gold medallists from London 2012 return to defend titles in Rio. Iran’s Zahra Nemati won her London title in the W1/W2 division, now since retired from the event, and will compete in the recurve women’s open competition in 2016.

• JERE FORSBERG, Finland  – Compound men’s Open
• JEFF FABRY, USA  – w1 men’s
• ZAHRA NEMATI, Iran  – Recurve women’s W1/W2

2. Biggest squads

China has the largest contingent at the para archery competition at Rio 2016 – with a total of 12 athletes. Great Britain is in second, with 11, and third is Korea, on 10. The top five:

• China  – 12
• Great Britain  – 11
• Korea  – 10
• Italy  – 9
• USA , Turkey , Brazil  – 8

3. rio round two

London 2012 Paralympic Champion Zahra Nemati made her Olympic debut in 2016, carrying the flag for the Iranian team in Rio. She finished 33rd.

Zahra’s back for the Paralympic Games in the Brazilian city – following in the footsteps of other famous archery Paralympians who competed in both Games. The first, actually, was Neroli Fairhall of New Zealand, who will shortly be inducted into the Paralympic Hall of Fame, the International Paralympic Committee recently announced.

4. Unbeaten

China’s Wu Chunyan, who competed at the 2015 World Archery Para Championships in Donaueschingen, has never lost a match in world-level competition. She went five for five individually, there, on the way to taking triple gold: in the team, mixed team and individual competitions.

5. Divisions

A total of 137 athletes are entered to compete at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. The division-by-division breakdown:

• Recurve men open – 33
• Recurve women open – 32
• Compound men open – 31
• Compound women open – 17
• W1 men – 15
• W1 women – 9

Although the team competitions have been retired for these Paralympics, each competition category will also have a mixed team event.

• Recurve open mixed team – 16
• Compound open mixed team – 10
• W1 mixed team – 7

6. By region

All five Paralympic continents are represented in the para archery competition at Rio 2016. The largest group is from Europe – thanks to strong representation from Great Britain, Italy and Turkey – followed by Asia, led by China and Korea.

• Africa – 1
• Americas – 20
• Asia – 49
• Europe – 66
• Oceania – 1

7. Youngest…

Archery GB’s Jessica Stretton, at 16 years of age, is the youngest para archer on the Rio field. Competing in the new women’s W1 division, she’s had success despite her youth. Earlier in 2016, she finished second at the European Para Archery Championships.

She’s also top of the world ranking arriving in Rio.

8. …and oldest 

Also from Great Britain, veteran of the para archery circuit John Cavanagh turned 60 in July.

John was Paralympic Champion in 2004 in Athens – then followed that up with a silver medal at the following Games in Beijing.

9.3…

…is the average arrow score over the past two years in international competition of W1 world record holder, and Beijing 2008 Paralympic Champion, David Drahoninsky.

The Czech para athlete’s average is one-third of a point higher than his two nearest competitors – John Walker and Jeff Fabry – over that period.

The para archery competition at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games starts on 10 September in the Sambodromo.