The first day of the Paralympics saw medals awarded in cycling, judo, shooting and swimming. Day 2 will feature the beginning of athletics, the first round of 7-a-side football, sailing preliminaries, and wheelchair tennis. Universal Sports will play highlight reels at 1 & 2 4 a.m. & 12 p.m. Eastern U.S. time, which will be available online.

SHOOTING: Wheelchair-bound Veronika Vadovicova of Slovakia scored 494.8 points in the R2-SH1 standing air rifle competition, therefore becoming the first gold medalist of the 2008 Paralympics. There are two classifications in para-sport in shooting: SH1 (events in which the shootists can bear the weight of the guns) and SH2 (events for competitors don't have the ability to hold up the weapon, and require a shooting stand). There is an SH3 class for visually impaired shooters, but it is not contested at the Paralympics.

CYCLING: Just like Great Britain's Olympic cyclists a month ago, the nation's Paralympic entries are cleaning up at the Laoshan Velodrome, wearing out that venue's poor CD of "God Save the Queen." Three golds total for Great Britain so far there, and Simon Richardson, Aileen McGlynn and Darren Kenny all set world records in cycling's first day. Kenny won the CP3/4 individual pursuit, Richardson took the LC3/4 time trial, and McGlynn and Hunter won the B&VI 1km women's time trial.

Paralympic cyclists are separated into three classes with subdivisions, B&VI (blind/vision impaired), LC (locomotor disability), CP (cerebral palsy) and HC. The latter is a handcycling class for athletes who have lost use of their lower limbs.

SWIMMING: In swimming, Paralympic classes are based on the severity of disability. Events are classified S1 to S10 with S1 being most severe, with S11-S13 reserved for athletes with sight deficiencies (S13 is for legally blind swimmers). For races, a second letter is sometimes added to define which swimming discipline is being contested: B for breaststroke and M for medley.