Australian cyclist Paige Greco scooped the first gold medal of the Tokyo Paralympics on Wednesday, as records started falling almost immediately. The French squad got their account off the mark, with two medals, in track cycling and swimming.
Paige Greco took gold in record-breaking fashion in track cycling's C1-C3 class 3,000 metre individual pursuit, beating China's Wang Xiaomei.
The Australian smashed her own world record by nearly eight seconds to qualify fastest from the morning heats.
She then lowered that time by another second and a half to 3min 50.815sec in the final.
Silver medallist Wang -- who had also beaten Greco's old world record in the heats -- had no answer to the Australian's power, finishing more than four seconds adrift.
A strong start for the French
French cyclist Marie Patouillet took bronze in the C5 individual pursuit.
And French swimmer Ugo Didier took silver in the 400m freestyle (S9).
In the wheelchair rugby pool stage, defending gold medallists Australia suffered a shock setback in their bid to become the first team to top the podium at three consecutive Games, losing 54-53 to Denmark.
Meanwhile, British swimmer Reece Dunn set a new Paralympic record in the men's 100m butterfly S14 category.
