Brazil President Dilma Rousseff and Minister of Sport Aldo Rebelo launched a new plan to enhance Brazil’s high performance sports for the Rio 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The Brasil Medalhas 2016 plan (Medals for Brazil 2016) aims to place Brazil among the top 10 medal-winning countries at the 2016 Olympic Games and in the top five at the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. This Brasil Medalhas plan will allocate an additional R$1B ($495M) in federal public investments dedicated to high performance sports; the investment will occur between '13 and '16. Two-thirds of these funds will come from the federal government’s general budget, and one-third will come from investments by state-owned companies. The Ministry of Sport will prioritize investments in Brazilian sports that have a higher chance of winning medals in '16. In particular, 21 Olympic sports and 15 Paralympic sports have been identified as the focus of this program. The selected Olympic sports are: open water swimming, athletics, basketball, boxing, canoeing, BMX cycling, women’s football, artistic gymnastics, equestrian, judo, wrestling, swimming, modern pentathlon, taekwondo, tennis, shooting, triathlon, sailing, volleyball and beach volleyball. The Paralympic sports are: athletics, boccia, canoeing, cycling, wheelchair fencing, 5-a-side and 7-a-side football, goalball, weight lifting, equestrian, judo, swimming, rowing, table tennis and sitting volleyball (SECOM).
