Sport Week: History of Para cycling

Road events made their Paralympic debut at New York/Stoke Mandeville 1984 and track competitions at Atlanta 1996. 02 Jul 2016

A group of cyclists compete in the Men's C4-5 Scratch race at the UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships in Apeldoorn, Netherlands.

ⒸBryn Lennon/Getty Images

By IPC

A total of 18 gold medals will be up for grabs on the track and 33 on the road at Rio 2016.

When road Para cycling entered the Paralympic programme at New York/Stoke Mandeville 1984, the events were open to cyclists with cerebral palsy.

Norway’s Mortem Fromyr and France’s Dominique Molle were the most decorated cyclists at those Paralympics, claiming two golds each.

Over the following years, Para cycling started to include athletes with amputations and other physical impairments, who compete on bicycles, tricycles and hand cycles.

Track Para cycling made its Paralympic debut at Atlanta 1996, with men’s and women’s events, and has been contested at every Games since.

At the London 2012 Paralympic Games, Great Britain topped the cycling medals table, followed by the USA and China.

A total of 18 gold medals will be up for grabs on the track and 33 on the road at Rio 2016.

Editor’s note: Each sport on the Rio 2016 Paralympic programme will have a dedicated week of featured content published on paralympic.org. Every week a new sport will be featured and the series will run until September’s Games, helping the public understand more about the 22 sports being contested in Rio.

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Sport fans from around the world can now buy their Paralympic tickets for Rio 2016 from authorised ticket resellers (ATRs)

The IPC’s Global ATR is Jet Set Sports, and Rio 2016 tickets and packages can be purchased on the CoSport website.

Residents of Brazil can buy 2016 Paralympics tickets directly from the Rio 2016 website.

Visa International is the exclusive payment card and the official payment system for the Paralympic Games.