Milano Cortina 2026: Adicoff’s clean cross-country skiing sweep

As snow fell on Tesero Cross-Country Skiing Stadium for the first time this week, Para athletes tackled the Para cross-country skiing 20km interval start free events, leading to a final day of historic victories and clean sweeps across the board. 

Clean sweep for USA’s Adicoff 

Winning gold in any event is an unbelievable achievement, but for USA’s Jake Adicoff, in the men’s vision impaired category, the goal was for gold in every Para cross-country skiing event. He clinched his final gold in the 20km event with guide Peter Wolter, securing his clean sweep of the Milano Cortina 2026 Games. 

“Four races, four gold medals, that was the goal. It was really hard but it was so rewarding to do it. That was my goal since four years ago, it’s been in my mind ever since then,” said Adicoff. 

“It’s cool, I’m really proud of the work that I’ve done, the work that this team has done and all the support of my friends and family. I couldn’t be happier right now.” 

In the women’s standing event Sydney Peterson of USA also took the gold, bringing her Games haul to four medals (three gold and one silver) from six events. 

"I'm in shock. I mean, I don't know how that happened. I just felt good racing and I just kept going,” Peterson said. 

"When I was trying to evaluate how I was going to set up this week, I knew that this could be one of my favourite races, so I tried to make sure I had a good amount of energy so I could do well for this race.” 

Para cross-country skiing has been the USA’s most successful sport of the Games, contributing to 11 of their 23 Games medals. 

Bronze dream for Italy’s Romele 

To a cheering local crowd, Italy’s first Paralympic medal at Tesero Cross-Country Skiing Stadium was gained by Guiseppe Romele, securing the bronze medal on the last day of competition in the men’s Men's 20km interval start sitting event.. 

Romele had his heart set on a home medal, and has now succeeded, matching his Beijing 2022 result where he gained bronze in the middle distance sitting event. 

"It was an extremely difficult race, probably one of the most important and complex of my sporting career,” Romele said after the competition. 

“I had dreamed about it for a long time, and I had been thinking about this medal for a while. I didn’t know what colour it would have, but I knew that sooner or later it would come.” 

Romele came behind silver medallist Zhongwu Mao of China, and Russian gold medallist Ivan Goblubkov in the men’s 20km interval start sitting. 

The host nation has also won 12 medals in Para alpine skiing and three in Para snowboard, for a total of 16 Paralympic medals. 

Podium takeover for China

China took gold, silver and bronze in the men’s standing 20km competition to share a podium together. Chenyang Wang won the gold with a factored time of 45:50.2 ahead of compatriots Lingxin Huang who took silver and Xiaobin Liu with bronze. 

For Wang this was his second gold of the Games, having also topped the podium in the open 4x2.5km relay. With a gruelling Games schedule, he knew he had to hold back energy for this final race.  

"When I got the schedule for the Paralympics, I practised a lot for that and got prepared. In the third or fourth lap, I started to feel a bit tired and my time increased a bit, so in the final lap I tried my best to win some extra time to win the gold medal,” Wang said. 

After gaining a bronze medal in the mixed 4x2.5km relay the day before, his compatriot Haung was excited to once again share the podium with his teammates, saying: "I'm very proud that the Chinese team won three medals in this race. It really means a lot to the development of Chinese winter sport. It means a lot to me as well." 

China won a total of 13 medals in Para cross-country skiing, with another 15 medals at the same stadium for Para biathlon, providing a substantial contribution to their Games total of 44 medals. 

Outstanding debut for Korea’s Kim 

Yunji Kim of Team Republic of Korea reacts after competing in the... News Photo - Getty Images 

In the women’s sitting 20km race, the Republic of Korea’s Yunji Kim won her second gold medal, her fifth medal in total, marking an outstanding debut for the country’s first individual female medallist. 

"I’m so happy because I didn’t know that I would win a gold medal today. It was my first 20km race, and I’m so excited." 

Kim came ahead of Germany’s Anja Wicker and USA’s Oksana Masters. The 19-year-old had taken silver behind USA’s most decorated Paralympian in the last two individual Para cross-country races and said of Masters: "She’s a really good athlete, and I’m so excited to compete with her. I have gained more confidence through this experience and will try my best (to beat her again) at the next Games." 

Wicker’s first cross-country medal 

For Germany’s Anja Wicker, this was also a special medal as a career-first in the discipline. 

“I have a lot of biathlon medals but I’ve not gained a cross-country medal before. This was the big dream to get one, and to win it in the 20km is insane,” shared Wicker. 

“I’ve not done that many (20km races) in my career, and that was by fast the best one, maybe one of my best races in general. After six races here at the Games, to have such good arms and such a flow in the race it’s incredible.”