Para-Triathlon will make its Paralympic Games debut in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. .
A relatively new sport to the Paralympic world, paratriathlon is as exciting and as similar to the able bodied version. Paratriathlon is a continuous race over distances in three disciplines: swimming, cycling and running Male and females can both participate
Disabled athletes can compete in the British Disabled Triathlon Championships, where they can compete against athletes of the same classification and gender.
There are also European and World Championships as well as the sport’s debut in the 2016 Paralympics in Rio, Brazil Equipment including handcycles and racing wheelchairs are permitted to be used by athletes in races Athletes race in three disciplines: 750m of swimming, followed by 20km of cycling and 5km of running.
Competition categories are based on specific physical impairments. Athletes may use a hand cycle, tandem bicycle or bicycle in the cycling portion and wheelchairs are permitted on the running portion of the course. The sport is practiced in 37 different countries, and 27 different nations will have held national championship events by the end of 2011.
Melissa Stockwell
Melissa Stockwell is an American paratriathlete and former swimmer and U.S. Army officer. A first lieutenant, she was the first woman soldier to lose a limb in the Iraq War. She lost her left leg when a roadside bomb exploded when she was leading a convoy in Baghdad.
For her service in Iraq she was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart. She subsequently became the first Iraq veteran chosen for the Paralympics.
She competed in three swimming events, the 100 meter butterfly, 100 meter freestyle, and 400 meter freestyle, at the 2008 Summer Paralympics and finished sixth, fifth, and fourth in her heats, respectively.
She was the U.S. team's flag bearer at the closing ceremonies. Stockwell trains at the United States Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, as part of the Veterans Paralympic Performance Program
