An Iranian cyclist has died after being severely injured in a cycling road race at the Rio de Janeiro Paralympics.
The Paralympics organizing committee identified the rider as Sarafraz Bahman Golbarnezhad, aged 48.
The cyclist crashed on the road course as he descended a hill and reportedly injured his neck.
The organizing committee said Golbarnezhad received emergency treatment on the course and was transported to a hospital in Rio de Janeiro.
"He was an exemplary Paralympic sportsman who, with love and energy, tried his best to promote the name of Iran and to make all of us proud and at the end he gave his life for this," the committee added.
"All members of the Iranian cultural and sports camp here express condolences to his family and the Iranian nation," it said. "The name of Bahman Golbarnezhad will be inscribed in the proud history of Iranian Paralympics."
"The demise of our dear cyclist Bahman Golbarnezhad immersed us all in deep sorrow," Iranian President Hassan Rohani said in a tweet. "Rest in peace."
Golbarnezhad's Paralympic biography says he was born in Shiraz, Iran, and that he also competed in the London Paralympics, although he did not win a medal.
