Milano Cortina 2026: Para biathlon closes with multi-medallists celebrating

The final day of the Para biathlon competition took place at the Tesoro Cross-Country Stadium on 13 March with the sprint pursuit finals, and it was a huge day for Ukraine.

Ukraine won six medals in all with a strong showing across the sitting, standing and vision-impaired categories.

In the women’s standing event, Ukraine shared the podium, with Iryna Bui taking silver and Oleksandra Kononova the bronze.

The men’s vision-impaired event also saw two athletes from Ukraine on the podium with Oleksandr Kazik taking the silver medal, and Anatolii Kovalevskyi the bronze. Meanwhile, Grygorii Vovchynskyi took silver in the standing event, and Taras Rad came away with silver in the men’s sitting final.

The competition took place on Friday the 13th, a day considered unlucky in Western superstition, but Rad said afterwards it’s been a lucky day for him. 

"The silver medal is also a very good achievement for me. I just remember the story that eight years ago, on the 13th, I got my first gold medal in biathlon,” he said. 

Rad missed one shot during the first round of shooting but was able to compose himself. 

"There was a lot of adrenaline and aggression for shooting. I started very quickly; one-two. I missed one, and then I said 'Stop, Taras, just calm down'. Then I shot the rest and it was successful,” Rad told the IPC.

Wilkie has best ever individual performance

Canada’s Natalie Wilkie surprised herself in an event that over the years hasn’t been her strongest, winning gold in the women’s sprint pursuit standing final where all the athletes start at the same time. 

The victory gives Wilkie four individual medals in four races at Milano Cortina surpassing her previous Games high of three individual medals and one team medal at Beijing 2022, and three medals at PyeongChang 2018. With the mixed team event and the 20km Para cross-country event still to go, Wilkie is on course for a stand-out Games. 
 

“This event (sprint pursuit) actually started as one of the ones I disliked the most...I hated it so much I mentioned to my coach and he said ‘sounds like that’s a weakness of yours, we should work on’. After he had made me do all the sprint pursuits.

“I have to admit all these years later it was a good thing, because this year it’s become one of my strongest events.”

“It’s always a little bit stressful with everyone starting at the same time. You can see where your competitors are on the course, usually that makes me anxious, but my coach reminded that it’s just about doing my own best race.” 

Despite saying she went into the race with ‘no expectations’, Wilkie did ensure her face decoration was on point.  All week, Wilkie has been wearing glitter make-up on her face during her races that seems to indicate the colour of medal she is about to win. 
“Of course I’ve got the gold glitter, I was manifesting.”

Czechia’s Carina wins, despite neck fractures 

In the women’s vision-impaired sprint pursuit Carina Edlingerova won gold for Czechia, her first time topping the Paralympic podium for her new country, after moving from Austria.

“I think the entire Czech nation was worried if Carina can sing, but I think I proved that I could, and it was a very big honour for me to sing this anthem,” Edlingerova joked. 

To celebrate her win, Carina jumped on the podium but admitted it was risky.

“I was racing with a collar as I had multiple neck fractures some weeks ago, so actually the jump on the podium was a big relief.” she said.

Yue Wang of China came second taking the silver, while the bronze medal was shared between Germany’s Leonie Maria Walter and Czechia’s Simona Bubenickova, who both were given a finish time of 13:59.2. 

Mixed feeling for Germany’s Marco Maier 

With the mix of shooting and skiing, Para biathlon is a unique challenge for athletes.

This difficulty was felt by Germany’s Marco Maier who led the qualification round with flawless shooting and a time of 9:53.5, but saw three shooting penalties in the finals. His result earned him the bronze medal, behind China’s Jaiyun Cai who won gold. 

“I don’t know, I need to talk with my coach. I don’t know where the misses were. What’s bad for me is if I shot zero then maybe the gold medal. Since I topped the qualification, the pressure was high,” Maier shared.

“Three starts, three medals, that’s the dream. But three bronze, that’s ok.” 

Second biathlon medal for Yunji Kim

Despite saying she prefers Para cross-country, Yunji Kim has had a fantastic showing in Para biathlon, taking one silver and one gold medal away from the competition. Kim’s gold in the Para biathlon individual sitting event marked the first individual women’s gold medal for the Republic of Korea in a winter Paralympic Games.

Today’s highly competitive sitting sprint pursuit competition saw Kim and USA’s Kendall Gretsch go head-to-head with the American earning the gold. Two shooting penalties made Kim take extra laps, giving Gretsch the advantage she needed.

“I have a little regret with (the misses in) the second shooting, but at least I didn’t miss the last three shots. When I drew the penalty loops, Kendall passed me. She’s really good at shooting and she’s amazing, I want to be like her,” said Kim. 

This win was Gretsch’s first gold of the Games, having taken two bronze medals and a silver already. She was surprised given the close competition with Kim. 

"I didn't really know until I saw the finish line and saw that I was ahead that I had actually won the race. I thought that I was still in second,” Gretsch admitted.

"Going into the second shooting I was still behind. I saw her (Kim) leaving the shooting, and so if she had been clean, I was like, 'Oh, she's way far ahead of me'. But I think that's when she had missed, on the second shooting, and that's where I passed her."

Yunji Kim will be back at Tesero Cross-Country Stadium on 15 March for the 20km Para cross-country race. Given her speed on the course, she’s sure to be in contention for medals once again. 

“I think biathlon is really fun, but I still like cross-country more.”

Where to watch and listen to the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games

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