A total of 171 athletes from 30 countries were registered for the World Cup, 50 women and 121 men. All of the world champions of the previous year will start to defend their titles, including the British Sophie Thornhill , the Canadians Ross Wilson and Tristen Chernove and the Americans Amanda Reid and Shawn Morelli . Other titleholders are the Briton James Ball and the Americans Joseph Berenyi and Chris Murphy . Paralympics winners also take part in the World Cup in Rio, such as Li Zhangyu from China and Jody Cundy from Britain .
Two world records were set in the course of the world championships: Sophie Thornhill (driver) and Helen Scott (driver) mastered the time trial over 1000 meters in 1: 05.079 minutes, undercutting the previous four-year-old record set by Thornhill with pilot Rachel James . The Australian Emily Petricola (C4) set a world record of 3: 54.501 minutes in qualifying for the 3,000-meter single pursuit.