South Korea's main delegation for the Rio de Janeiro Paralympics departed Tuesday as they begin the quest for a solid performance at the quadrennial competition.

Eighty athletes from seven sports -- swimming, archery, judo, tennis, rowing, table tennis and athletics -- flew to Atlanta where their training camp is based. They will train in the US city about a week before landing in Brazil.

This is the first time that the South Korean Paralympic delegation will have an overseas training camp before they enter the Paralympics. The Korea Paralympic Committee said since Rio de Janeiro is very far from South Korea, they decided to stop in Atlanta to help the athletes recover their fitness.

"Since we are having this overseas training with support from various communities, we will give back by performing well at the Paralympics," said Choung Jai-jun, South Korea's chef de mission, at Incheon International Airport. "Our athletes will give their utmost effort to present hopeful messages to South Korea."

For the Sept. 7-18 Rio Paralympics, South Korea will be represented by 81 athletes and 58 officials in 11 sports. The athletes who didn't travel to Atlanta will join the main squad in Rio on Aug. 31.

South Korea will aim to win 10 gold medals and a top-12 finish in Rio, also the site of the 31st Summer Olympic Games which ended on Sunday. The country bagged nine gold medals at the London Paralympics four years ago and finished 12th.

"We will achieve our goals," said wheelchair tennis player Lee Ha-gel who is also the men's captain of the delegation. "We want to show that disabled athletes can also perform well." (Yonhap)