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≡ GAMES UPDATE ≡
American Paralympic medal machine Oksana Masters, 36, added to her collection on Tuesday with a stirring gold in the Cross Country Skiing women’s sitting Classical Sprint in the Val di Fiemme at the Winter Paralympic Games in Italy.
On the first day of Cross Country, Masters was a clear winner in 3:07.1, ahead of South Korea’s Yun-ji Kim (3:10.1). She was especially happy after finishing fourth in the Biathlon sitting Individual race on Sunday:
“I feel absolutely on top of the world right now, just in complete shock, and so, so happy.
“Today, I’m so proud of myself. To come back and not let the last race stay with me for this race. It was a new day and a new start. The key is not to carry what happened in the past. Just fight the fight today.”
It’s Masters’ 21st Paralympic medal in all (11-7-3) and 16th in the Winter Games (7-7-2), the most ever for an American woman. It was her third Sprint medal: gold in 2018, silver in 2022 and now gold in 2026.
U.S. teammate Sydney Peterson won a silver in the women’s standing Classical Sprint, trailing Norway’s Vilde Nielsen, 3:31.3 to 3:35.5. Peterson was thrilled:
“I’m pretty happy, it was a really fun day, a really fun race and I’m pretty stoked about how the result turned out.
“Every time you go up to the starting line at the Games, it gets harder and there’s more pressure. There are many more hurdles to get through, so I’m pretty stoked about it. I’m very happy with how I skied today.”
It’s her fourth career Paralympics medal (1-2-1).
In the men’s visually-impaired Classical Sprint, American Jake Adicoff – with Peter Wolter – won gold in 2:44.7 to 2:46.2 for China’s Shuang Yu (and Jincai Shang). The winner explained:
“I feel great. It was a tough day, but we did our best. I wanted it pretty bad, you know, a long-standing goal for this individual gold medal (as) I went for it so many times in the past.”
Adicoff won Cross Country silvers at the 2018 Paralympics (10 km) and 2022 (sprint and 20 km) and finally has an individual gold to go with his Mixed Relay win in 2022. He now has five Paralympic medals in all.
In the Mixed Doubles Curling, the U.S.’s Laura Dwyer and Stephen Emt lost to South Korea, 6-3, in the semis and will play for the bronze medal against Latvia on Wednesday.
The American sled hockey team roared past China, 7-1 and finished 3-0 in Group A with a 34-2 goals-against total and has advanced to the semifinals on 13 March, against the Czech Republic.
The U.S. has 10 medals so far (3-5-2), tied for second with Ukraine (3-2-5) and well behind China (23: 9-6-8). The Games continue through Sunday.
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