Australia opened the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games with a golden start on Day 1, thanks to a pair of world record times in the track cycling events.
Paige Greco collected the first gold medal of the Games and also won her first Paralympic title on the track, in the women’s C 1-3 3000 metres individual pursuit.
The two-time world champion twice lowered her world record, an even more impressive feat since launching into the spotlight only two years ago.
Her compatriot Emily Petricola followed up by winning the C4 category, and cut more than six seconds off her own world best time earlier in the qualifier, before overlapping Rio 2016 champion Shawn Morelli of the USA to win the final. She hopes her win inspires others with a similar disease.
The other gold medals for Australia came in the swimming events.
Australia finished day 1 on top of the medal tally with 6 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze, China is second with 5 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze and Ukraine is third with 1 gold, 5 silver and 2 bronze.
[Source: Paralympic.org]
