The world’s top visually impaired athletes are preparing to go into battle at the fifth International Blind Sports Federation (IBSA) World Games – with places at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games up for grabs. The event, the biggest in the world solely for visually impaired sportspeople, kicks off on Sunday (10 May) in Seoul, the Republic of Korea, and will continue until 17 May.  

“I hope these Games will serve as an opportunity to raise public awareness about people with an disability and also give athletes the chance and courage to be independent,” said Sohn Byung-doo, president of the organising committee. “We will try our best to make the Games an event where people with and without an disability will achieve harmony.”

About 6,000 athletes from approximately 60 countries will compete for medals in nine sports, six of them Paralympic Games events: athletics, 5-a-side football, goalball, judo, powerlifting and swimming. Ten-pin bowling, showdown and chess are the other events that will be contested in Seoul.

The goalball players will be particularly keen to do well, as the top two from both the men’s and women’s tournaments will qualify for Rio 2016. They will join the USA, Russia and Turkey women’s teams, and Finland and USA men’s sides, who qualified via the world championships, plus Brazil, who are guaranteed teams in both tournaments, as the host nation.

Meanwhile, the athletics, swimming and judo competitions will provide athletes the opportunity to earn ranking points towards qualification for the Rio 2016 Games.

Rio2016.com is not an absolute authority on qualification for the Olympic and Paralympic Games, which is an ongoing process. Final places will only be confirmed in July 2016 (for the Olympic Games) and August 2016 (for the Paralympic Games). The qualification systems are defined by each sport’s respective International Federation and the International Olympic Committee or International Paralympic Committee, and are subject to change. When an athlete or team wins a quota place for their nation, the final decision on whether this ‘slot’ is used and which athletes are sent is taken by the respective National Olympic Committee or National Paralympic Committee (NOC or NPC). Even when athletes win a ‘nominal’ place for themselves, NOCs/NPCs may have to decide who to send if the number of qualified athletes from one country exceeds the quota