Brazil at the Paralympics

Brazil made its Paralympic Games debut at the 1972 Summer Paralympics in Heidelberg, sending representatives to compete in track and field, para-archery, para swimming and wheelchair basketball. The country has competed in every edition of the Summer Paralympics since.^[1]

As of 2026, Brazilian athletes have won a total of 468 Paralympic medals, among them 467 medals in 20 different Summer sports and 1 in a Winter sport, of which 135 gold, 162 silver and 171 bronze medals. This places the country 16th on the all-time Paralympic Games medal table.

Brazil's first delegations experienced little success. No medals were won in 1972, and the country's only medal in 1976 was a silver, in the men's pairs in lawn bowls (through Robson S. Almeida and Luiz Carlos Costa). There were no medals either in 1980, but Brazilian Paralympians found notable success as from 1984, where they obtained their first gold: M. Ferraz won five silver medals and one gold in track and field; Márcia Malsar took three medals in para-athletics, of which the first gold for a Brazilian para athlete; Luiz Cláudio Pereira won four medals, of which two gold, in track and field; as did Amintas Piedade. Para swimmer Maria Jussara Matas obtained three medals, of which one gold, while Marcelo Amorim won four medals (three silver and a bronze), also in para swimming.

Pereira won three of Brazil's four gold medals in 1988, the fourth coming from para swimmer Graciana Moreira Alves. In 1992, four Brazilian para athletes each won a gold medal in track and field, while the country's two gold in 1996 were won in para swimming, with José Arnulfo Medeiros and para judo, with Antônio Tenório. Da Silva took another gold in 2000, adding to Brazil's four golds in track and field and one in para swimming that year. At the 2004 Games there were fourteen gold medals, of which five in para-athletics. Para swimmer Clodoaldo Silva became Brazil's most successful Paralympian in history, winning six gold medals in the pool, and Brazil also started the men's football 5-a-side dominination, defeating Argentina in a penalty shoot-out in the final. In the 7-a-side event, Brazil finished second, after a 1–4 defeat to Ukraine.

At the 2008 edition, para-athletics provided another four gold medals, boccia two, para judo one, and para swimming eight (four each from Daniel Dias and André Brasil). In football, Brazil finished fourth in the 7-a-side event, with losses to Ukraine (0-6) and Iran (0-4) in the final round. The country did, however, successfully defend for the first time its Paralympic title in 5-a-side football, defeating China 2–1 in the final.^[2]

Brazil debuted at the Winter Paralympics during 2014 edition in Sochi, sending two para athletes. This made Brazil the second tropical nation ever to have competed at the Winter Paralympics, after Uganda and the third country in South America to have done so, the others being Chile and Argentina.

At the 2026 Winter Paralympics hosted in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, Brazil won the first medal in their Winter Paralympics history^[3] – para cross-country skier Cristian Ribera earned a silver medal in the Men's sprint - sitting.^[4] Ribera's achievement also represented the first medal for a tropical nation and South America at the Winter Games.^[5]

This are the historical medal table for Brasil at the Summer Paralympics.^[6][7] This medal table also includes the 5 medals (1 gold, 3 silvers and 1 bronze) won at the 1992 Summer Paralympics for Intellectually Disabled, held in Madrid, who also organized by then International Coordenation Committee (ICC) and same Organizing Committee (COOB'92) who made the gestion of the 1992 Summer Paralympics held in Barcelona and also part of same event. But the results are not on the International Paralympic Committee 's (IPC) database.^[8]

Brazilian athletes who have won at least three gold medals or five or more medals of any colour.^[10][11]

• Brazil at the Olympics