Australia won its first medal of the Paralympic Games, with visually-impaired cyclist Lindy Hou taking bronze in the women's 1km time trial.

Hou and pilot Janelle Lindsay finished behind Great Britain and the United States, with all three breaking the previous world record.

"It's a surprise, I hadn't even thought about being the first medal at the Paralympics, all we wanted to do was do our absolute best," Hou said.

"I don't think there's a word to describe it, just happy."

The pair have only been training seriously since March, after Lindsay broke her back and pelvis when she was hit by a car late last year.

Fellow Australians Janet Shaw and Kelly McCombie finished fourth, while Lyn Lepore and Jenny Macpherson finished sixth.

Shaw, who only took up cycling three and a half years ago, is a strong gold medal chance in coming events.

One of the 37-year-old's eyes was removed due to cancer when she was one, and complications forced the removal of her remaining eye four years ago.

She recently wrote a book about the discovery that she was adopted, and her quest to find her biological parents.

Her father turned out to be media identity Terry Willessee, with whom she now has a strong relationship.

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