Mikhail Terentiev, the general secretary of the Russian Paralympic Committee, is confident that the team will finish higher than the eighth place they achieved in Beijing four years ago.

They have been steadily climbing up the medal table since they made their debut in Atlanta in 1996, when they finished 16th overall with a total of 27 medals, including nine gold.

They rose to 14th at Sydney 2000 and 11th at Athens in 2004 before moving up another six places in the Chinese capital, where they won 63 medals, 18 of them gold, including three by swimmer Dmitry Kokarev (pictured below, centre) in the S2 category, who is expected to be part of the team for London 2012.


"For now it's hard to say who Russia's main rivals will be," said Terentiev.

"It all depends on the countries' policies concerning the development of Paralympic Sports.

"Russia's principal 2012 Paralympic rivals could be Germany, China, the United States, Ukraine, and Britain.

"Sportsmen from Brazil are bound to impress the audience with their performance because the next Summer Olympics [sic] will take place in Rio de Janeiro.

"For Brazil, this will be a trial, an attempt to rise higher in the overall charts.

"It's good when representatives from more than 100 countries get together.

"It reminds us that we all share one small world, and that we must look after it."

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