Brazil at the 2014 Winter Paralympics

Brazil has competed in every Summer Paralympics since making their debut at the 1972 Summer Paralympics in Heidelberg, Germany.^[2] The nation made its first appearance in a Winter Olympic Games in the 1992 Albertville Games, and has participated in every Winter Olympics since, as of the conclusion of the 2018 Winter Olympics. However, the 2014 Winter Paralympics was the nation's first appearance in the winter version of the Paralympics.^[3] Andre Pereira was chosen as the Brazilian flag-bearer for the parade of nations during the opening ceremony.^[4] Fernando Rocha was chosen as the flag-bearer for the closing ceremony.^[5]

Every participant at the Paralympics has their disability grouped into one of five disability categories; amputation, the condition may be congenital or sustained through injury or illness; cerebral palsy; wheelchair athletes, there is often overlap between this and other categories; visual impairment, including blindness; Les autres, any physical disability that does not fall strictly under one of the other categories, for example dwarfism or multiple sclerosis.^[6][7] Each Paralympic sport then has its own classifications, dependent upon the specific physical demands of competition. Events are given a code, made of numbers and letters, describing the type of event and classification of the athletes competing. Events with "B" in the code are for athletes with visual impairment, codes LW1 to LW9 are for athletes who stand to compete and LW10 to LW12 are for athletes who compete sitting down. Alpine skiing and cross-country skiing events grouped athletes into separate competitions for sitting, standing and visually impaired athletes.^[8]

For the 2014 Winter Paralympics, snowboard cross was considered a discipline of Alpine skiing, rather than a separate sport.^[9] Snowboarding was offered only for athletes who competed in a standing position.^[9] The men's snowboard cross event was held on 14 March 2014. Andre Pereira was 34 years old at the time of the competition.^[10] Over three runs, Pereira improved his time on each run.^[11] Only the two best runs for each rider counted, and his combined time was 2 minutes and 42 seconds, placing him 28th out of 33 competitors. The race was won by Evan Strong with a combined time of 1 minute and 43 seconds.^[9]