With one year to go to the start of the 2016 Paralympic Games, the Australian team is still seeking $2 million in funding to help get to Rio. But for some athletes, such as London gold-medal winning sailor Liesl Tesch, the lead-up to the Games is being dominated by fears about personal health.
The Australian Paralympic Committee has a target of $7 million to send a team of about 170 people and have so far raised $5 million. 
The struggle for funds is nothing new for the Australian team - there was a shortfall for the Sochi Winter Paralympics team, but any shortfall in funding would make it more difficult for the team of retaining a top-five position, a target made more ambitious because of the difference in resources between Australia and nations such as China, Russia and home country Brazil.
Chef de mission Kate McLoughlin said failing to find the $2 million could affect funding of future programs.
"It just means we have to look at our budget and there are things we would like to do to try and create the best possible performance environment for athletes and some of those things may have to be slightly compromised so it's certainly something that we're really keen to get that extra $2 million and our team is working extremely hard through fundraising and we're hopeful we can get there," McLoughlin said.
Tesch, who competes in the Scud-18 with Daniel Fitzgibbon, said she was worried about reports of sailors who participated at a recent test race at Guanabara Bay, where the Olympic and Paralympic events will be held, having contracted infections that they blame on the bay's waters which is polluted by human sewage.
Recent tests have also revealed high levels of bacteria and disease-causing viruses in the waters.
Tesch said while she did not tend to get too wet while competing in her class of boat, there were many other seemingly simple tasks that could become problematic, especially when Paralympic athletes could be more susceptible than able-bodied counterparts.This was despite having had her "shots up to the eyeballs", she said.
"I'm pretty worried, watching some of that footage of the illnesses that came back from the Olympic test events. We don't have the same circulation," Tesch said.
"Do I take rubber gloves for when we eat on the water or do we just not eat on the water? Then how do you keep the lid on the drink bottle? Do you keep the bottle in a plastic bag and then you have to put your dirty hands in the bag and take the lid off the bottle. It's all these little bits.
"As a wheelchair user as well I'm pushing through the dirt with my hands so naturally you put your hands on your face or your eyes if they're itchy or whatever but you can't, so there's the whole wheelchair user factor."
"... [But] this is the ultimate dream, the ultimate goal so you've just got to put all those things aside and just go and achieve what you want to achieve and you just take the risk."
However, McLoughlin said officials were monitoring the progress of the clean-up efforts.
"It's obviously a concern. We'll have our medical team heading over there at the beginning of   November and that's going to be a real key focus for them to assess the situation themselves," McLoughlin said.
"The key here is prevention ... it's the team that prepares the best to make sure athletes are kept as healthy as possible given the circumstances, that's where we're going to come out on top. So as long as our medical professionals can see the situation and assess it and make plans accordingly I think we'll be fine"
Sailing has been slated to be dropped from the Paralympic schedule for the 2020 Games in Tokyo. It is a decision that disappoints Tesch, a former wheelchair basketball Paralympian who teamed up with Fitzgibbon shortly before the London Games.
"It's terrible. I think we've got to go out on a really high note but we're not putting that pressure on ourselves. It's sad and we're definitely fighting to the end as far as trying to get it reinstated," Tesch said.
"It would be great to see it in there not for Dan and myself and not for sailors who are competing in Rio but for the future sailors, for our training partners. What is there to look forward to after that is taken away?"