A guide to six sports at Winter Paralympics

The Winter Paralympics officially started on Friday, with the opening ceremony in Verona, Italy.

- By DANIELLA MATAR

NOAH GROVE of Team USA is pressured by Italy's Remotti Marnini in pool play in a men's hockey game. GERMANY'S Anja Wicker takes aim at the range during the women's biathlon sprint sitting discipline. RAVI DRUGAN of the U.S. competes in the Alpine skiing men's downhill sitting competition Saturday.

(DARRAN TRAYNOR Getty Images ELETTRA AZZOLIN Associated Press JOEL MARKLUND Associated Press)

With more than 600 Para athletes and 79 sets of medals to be awarded, Milan-Cortina will feature a record number of athletes and medals.

They will compete across six sports: Para alpine skiing, Para biathlon, Para cross-country skiing, Para ice hockey, Para snowboard and wheelchair curling.

In the skiing sports — Para alpine skiing, Para biathlon, Para cross-country skiing — athletes compete in one of three categories: standing, sitting (on a sit-ski or monoski) or vision impaired (who race following a guide connected via radio).

Guides also receive medals.

Within each of these three categories skiers compete in different divisions depending on their functional ability. A results calculation system determines the factored time of each athlete, which allows athletes from different divisions to race against each other.

Here’s a look at the sports:

Introduced at the first Winter Paralympics in 1976, it includes five events: slalom, giant slalom, super-G, downhill and super combined.

There are 30 medal events — 15 for men and 15 for women.

In the sitting category, athletes use a specialized monoski, a seat mounted on a single ski with a shock absorber that helps with riding on uneven terrain and making turns.

In Para biathlon and Para cross-country, the sit-ski is a sitting device mounted on a pair of cross country skis.