São Tomé and Príncipe at the 2016 Summer Paralympics

São Tomé and Príncipe first competed at the Olympic Games in the 1996 Summer Olympics at Atlanta, United States. The country participated in the Olympics on six occasions prior to their debut at the 2016 Summer Paralympics held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from 7 to 18 September.^[1][2] São Tomé and Príncipe intended to make its debut in the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London, United Kingdom,^[3] but withdrew days before the multi-sport event commenced for unknown reasons.^[4] The country was one of six to make its first appearance in the Paralympic Games: the others were Aruba, Congo, Malawi, Somalia and Togo.^[5] The São Tomé and Príncipe National Paralympic Committee sent one short-distance sprinter to the Games, Alex Anjos, who was selected to be the country's flag bearer for the opening ceremony.^[2]

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. Some sports, such as athletics, divide athletes by both the category and severity of their disabilities, other sports, for example swimming, group competitors from different categories together, the only separation being based on the severity of the disability.^[8]