Team USA athletes dominated day two of para cross-country skiing at the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games, securing three of the six available gold medals. Oksana Masters, Jake Adicoff, and Sydney Peterson each won their 10km races, while Kendall Gretsch earned bronze. The Russian Federation took two golds, and France claimed the remaining one.
At the Tesero Cross-Country Skiing Stadium, day two of para cross-country skiing featured intense competition across multiple divisions. Oksana Masters of the USA won gold in the women's 10km interval start sitting event, marking her third gold of the Games and matching her tally from Beijing 2022. "The competitor in me wants to keep pushing, (to find out) how many golds can I get from one Games," Masters said. "But at the same time, I am so excited to see the sport growing. Younger athletes are coming up, they're helping me to get better."
Republic of Korea's Yunji Kim took silver, her second silver of the Games, with USA's Kendall Gretsch securing bronze. Gretsch expressed surprise at the result: "I didn’t think that I was going to be able to get a cross-country medal this week, so this was really exciting. The waiting is so hard because you don’t know and it was such a tight race that you knew it would be really tight."
In the men's classic standing event, France's Karl Tabouret claimed gold, rebounding from a sprint disappointment on March 10. "I was disappointed with the result yesterday. The sprint is my specialty and I’m a world champion there so I really wanted to give it all there and was disappointed," Tabouret said. He credited team discussions for his strategy.
Sydney Peterson of the USA edged Norway's Vilde Nilsen by 2.7 seconds for gold in the women's classic standing, her first individual Paralympic title. "I knew it was going to take everything I had to win today," Peterson said of the close race. "She’s such a strong skier... she’s pushed me so much."
Jake Adicoff, with guide Reid Goble, won the men's 10km interval start classic vision impaired for his second gold. "It was so hard, that was the deepest slush that I’ve skied maybe ever," Adicoff noted, also highlighting his role as an openly gay Paralympian for representation.
The Russian Federation's Anastasiia Bagaiin and Ivan Golubkov won golds, while China's Zhongwu Mao and Peng Zheng took silver and bronze in the men's sitting event. Mao, who has a biathlon silver, said: "I had a lot of expectations for a gold medal, but even though I didn’t win the gold today, I think we did a very good job."
Over two days, the USA has earned five golds, one silver, and one bronze in para cross-country, surpassing their Beijing performance.
