Bahman Golbarnezhad, 48, received emergency treatment and was taken to a Rio hospital where he died.
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In a statement released this evening, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) confirmed that Golbarnezhad was involved in a crash at around 10.40am local time on the first section of the mountainous course.
The global cycling community is in mourning after an athlete died in competition for the first time in Paralympic Games history.
The Iranian also competed in the 2012 London Paralympics and came 14th in the time-trial earlier on Wednesday.
Philip Craven, the International Paralympic Committee president, said the cyclist’s death “cast a dark shadow” but that overall “Rio 2016 will be remembered as a successful Paralympic Games and a Games that surprised many”.
The IPC said Golbarnezhad’s family in Iran have been notified and his Iranian team-mates were told as a group in the Athlete Village. “Our hearts and prayers are with Bahman’s family, his teammates and all the people of Iran”.
Flags were lowered to half mast at the Paralympic village and Iran took a photo of Golbarnezhad on to the podium after winning their sitting volleyball gold medal on Sunday.
South Korea has finished 20th in the gold medal tally at the Rio de Janeiro Paralympic Games.
Rio on Monday (today) closes a Paralympic Games that many feared would be a fiasco but which turned into a triumph, though marred in the final hours by the death of an Iranian cyclist.
Officials are now investigating the crash which occurred on the Grumari loop during the event for athletes with upper or lower limb impairments. He was married and has a wife and one son.
Bahman Golbarnezhad was described as “a family man”.
She was hoping to win her second medal in Rio on Saturday night, but could only manage a fifth-place finish in the women’s S5 100m freestyle final, clocking a time of 1:24.04 minutes, 83 hundredths of a second from third place. “He loved his family”.
“This is the first and hopefully the last death we’ve had in Paralympic sport at a Paralympic Games”, added Spence.
Japan Paralympic Committee Chairman Mitsunori Torihara said specific measures need to be worked out toward 2020.
Masoud Ashrafi, the secretary general of Iran’s National Paralympic Committee, said after the match that they going to “present this gold medal to the soul of Bahman Golbarnezhad” in an interview with the Press Association.
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Chris Game, director of Sport at the school, said; “We are absolutely thrilled James and Lee are representing Great Britain at the Rio Paralympic games in their respective sports”.
