For the world’s top athletes, 2015 will be a crucial year on the road to Rio. By December, qualifying competitions will be under way for all the Olympic and Paralympic sports to feature at Rio 2016, while many sports will confirm places at the Games via their ranking systems.

Up to now, the qualification process has begun for only nine of the 42 Olympic sports and 10 of the 23 Paralympic sports, with 3.8% (395 places) of Olympic and 6.2% (271 places) of Paralympic berths booked by athletes and teams from 64 countries in 2014.

While some sports are yet to confirm exact dates for tournaments that will offer qualification places for Rio 2016, it can be estimated that places for 4,600 Olympic athletes (44% of the total) and 990 Paralympic athletes (23%) will be allocated in 2015.  

Added to the totals for 2014, this means that by the end of this year, nearly half (47.6%) of the 10,500 Olympic places and nearly a third (29%) of the 4,350 Paralympic spots for Rio 2016 will have been won. So, by the end of 2015, an estimated 42 per cent of all the places will have been allocated.

“This year will be very important and exciting for athletes in all sports who hope to compete at the Rio 2016 Games,” said Melina Xanthopoulou, Rio 2016’s Sport Entries Manager. “It’s also very exciting for us at the committee, as it brings us closer to the Games.”

By the end of 2015, hockey will be the first and only Olympic sport to have awarded all of its slots for Rio 2016. Meanwhile, seven Paralympic sports will end the year with all their places allocated: football 5-a-side, football 7-a-side, goalball, judo, table tennis, shooting and sailing.

The action will begin early for Olympic athletes. On 1 February, the first men’s team to qualify for the Rio 2016 handball competition will be known when the world championship in Qatar ends. On the same day, the conclusion of the Slalom Canoe Oceania Championships in New Zealand will see the winners of the men’s and women’s individual kayak (K-1) and the men’s individual canoe (C-1) competitions earn places at the first Olympic Games to be staged in South America.

Slalom canoe competitors from Oceania will have their first chance to qualify for Rio 2016 this year (Photo: Getty Images/Phil Walter)

One of the year’s highlights will be the Pan-American Games in Toronto (10 to 26 July). Places in eight Olympic competitions will be at stake: equestrian dressage (one for teams and two individual), equestrian jumping (two for teams and six individual), equestrian eventing (one for teams), shooting (20 places), modern pentathlon (five male and five female athletes), handball (one male and one female team), hockey (one male and one female team) and canoe slalom (two male and one female canoist).

The FINA World Championships will be held in Kazan, Russia, from 24 July to 9 August, with places on offer for four of the five aquatics sports. In swimming, the best 12 teams in each relay competition will earn a place at Rio 2016, while the top 10 male and female marathon swimmers will qualify, along with the two men’s water polo finalists. In diving, the top three teams and top 12 individuals in both genders will earn berths.

In athletics, the top eight teams in each event at the relay world championships in the Bahamas (2-3 May) will qualify, while the beach volleyball world championships in the Netherlands (26 June to 5 July) will see the winning men’s and women’s pairs book their spots on Copacabana beach.

The FIVB Volleyball World Cup in Japan (21 August to 22 September) will qualify two men’s and two women’s teams, before he World Rowing Championships in France (30 August to 6 September) will offer 235 men’s places and 135 for women.

Men’s Olympic volleyball champions Russia will seek qualification at the FIVB World Cup (Photo: Getty Images/Elsa)

The first competitors to win Rio 2016 places in the three gymnastics disciplines will be decided at their world championships. In rhythmic gymnastics, 10 team places and 15 individual places will be up for grabs in Germany between 7 and 13 September. The World Gymnastics Championships in Glasgow (23 October to 1 November) will qualify 16 teams and 30 individuals in artistic gymnastics. Then eight men and eight women trampolinists will earn berths at their world championships in Denmark (25-28 November).

The first Paralympic Games qualifying competition will be the Americas Boccia Championship (29 April to 4 May), from which one team and two pairs will earn places at the Rio 2016 Games.

The first Boccia players to win places at Rio 2016 will be known in May (Photo: Getty Images/Gareth Copley)

The competition that will offer the most places will be the IPC Athletics World Championships in Qatar (22-31 October) where slots for 184 male and 158 female athletes will be up for grabs. The swimming world championships in Glasgow (13-19 July) will qualify 150 men and 100 women.

At the World Rowing Championships (in France from 30 August to 6 September), 32 places will be at stake for each gender. The paracanoe world championships in Milan (19-23 August) will qualify 18 men and 18 women for their sport’s Paralympic Games debut in Rio.

The world championships in Aiguebelette, France, will offer 64 places to Paralympic rowers  (Photo: Getty Images/Hannah Peters)

Also in August, the Parapan-American Games in Toronto will award places in nine sports: archery (five male and four female athletes), football 5-a-side (one team), football 7-a-side (one or two teams), goalball (one male and one female team), table tennis (11 male and 10 female athletes), sitting volleyball (one men’s team and one women’s), wheelchair rugby (one team), wheelchair basketball (one men’s team and one women’s) and wheelchair tennis (one male and one female athlete).

Qualification for the Olympic and Paralympic Games is an ongoing process and final entries will only be officially confirmed in July 2016 (for the Olympic Games) and August 2016 (for the Paralympic Games). Entries are recommended by national federations or sport organisations to their respective National Olympic Committees or National Paralympic Committees, who decide on final selections.