The first athletes to qualify for the Rio 2016 Games are close to realising their dream. This Sunday (June 15) the best sitting volleyball teams on the planet will begin the world championships in Elblag, Poland, and by next Friday two men’s and two women’s teams will have won the right to compete in the first Paralympic Games to be staged in South America.

Throughout 2014, athletes from at least 10 Olympic sports and 12 Paralympic sports will earn qualification spots for the greatest sporting event on the planet.

The sitting volleyball world championship finals will take place next Saturday, but with all four finalists earning spots in Rio, the semi-final winners the day before will have plenty to celebrate. In the men’s tournament, the two favourites among the 16 nations taking part are world champions Iran and Paralympic champions Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Middle East nation is No.1 in the world rankings and has won the Paralympic title five times, but lost to the European team in the London 2012 final.

“Our only goal in the competition is to win the title again, as this will lead us to the 2016 Games,” said Ramezan Salehi, the Iran libero. “The fact that the world championship is a qualifying tournament for the Paralympics further increases the value of competition, as it motivates all teams, who want to secure their places. The games will be high-level and all teams will be watching each other’s performance, thinking about the Games in Rio.”

China are the reigning women’s world and Paralympic champions and one of their main challengers, London 2012 silver medallists USA, will open the world championships at 2pm on Sunday at the Biznesowe Sports Centre when they take on Great Britain. Their coach Bill Hamiter believes his team are in a closely matched group.

“We are in a group with teams against which we usually play well,” he said. “We have strong opponents such as Russia and Slovenia, which are always among the best in the world. The games will be tough, but we are well prepared and ready to compete.”

In the men’s tournament the teams are divided into four groups of four, with the winners of each group going into the quarter-finals and the second and third-placed teams going into an elimination round to reach the last eight. The women’s competition will have two groups of six with the top two in each pool advancing to the semi-finals. The games will be broadcast live on the official competition website.

With six silver medal winners from London 2012, USA will be among the contenders in Poland and Rio (Getty Images/Dan Kitwood)

Brazil will have teams in both the men’s and women’s tournaments, but they already have their places at Rio 2016 guaranteed, as host nation representatives, so if they reach the finals, the third-placed team will qualify for Rio 2016. While the Brazilians are aiming to win in Poland, they will also use the tournament to analyse their potential rivals in Rio.

“It’s an important opportunity to play against the best in the world,” said Brazilian player Fred. “We want to know everything about our opponents: who are their players, features, games, personality, etc. It is the first time our team has been at this level and we have what it takes to fight for the gold in 2016.”

Germany’s Heiko Wiesenthal, meanwhile, is entering the tournament with realistic hopes. “We are very proud to take part in the world championships. We have trained very hard in the last three weeks and now we are so excited about our opening game on Sunday against the Netherlands. But it would be very difficult to beat Iran or Bosnia and Herzegovina on the way to qualify for Rio 2016.'”

See below for the groups for the 2014 Sitting Volleyball World Championships:

Men
Group A:  Poland, Ukraine, China, Algeria
Group B:  Iran, Egypt, USA, Iraq
Group C:  Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Croatia, Kazakhstan
Group D:  Russia, Germany, Netherlands, Morocco

Women
Group A:  Poland, USA, Slovenia, Russia, Great Britain, Finland
Group B:  China, Ukraine, Brazil, Netherlands, Germany, Japan.

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