Paralympic Winter Games: U.S. Medalist Tracker

The official slogan of the Paralympic Games has long been “Spirit in Motion.” In recent years, para athletes have embraced an unofficial motto: stare power. They know they’re being looked at, and they want to be seen as never before. Not just as athletes, but as people, as individuals who can be as ordinary outside of competition as they can be extraordinary within it.

The Paralympic Winter Games got underway on March 6 in Italy, with events taking place in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, respectively, just as they did for the Olympic Winter Games last month, and once again there are plenty of extraordinary feats to stare at.

The United States’ delegation of 72 athletes consists of everyone from legends like Oksana Masters to the self-proclaimed “rock star” in newly-minuted medalist Patrick Halgren. Team USA is attempting to best the country’s performance at the 2022 Games, which included five gold medals (fifth overall) and 20 medals total (fourth), and just as we did with the 2026 Olympic Winter Games last month, SportsTravel will track each individual medal winner from the United States — including the remarkable road roads that led them to glory on their sports’ biggest stage. Take a look:

Jake Adicoff

Event/Discipline: Para cross-country skiing / men’s sprint classic vision impairment; men’s 10km interval start classic vision impairment; men’s 20km interval start free vision impairment
Medal: Gold (x3)
Hometown: Sun Valley, Idaho
Approximate distance to Cortina d’Ampezzo: 5,300

Road to Glory: Like many great athletes before him, Adicoff has come out of retirement and picked up right where he left off — perhaps even better. He made his Paralympic Winter Games debut in 2014 and won a silver at the Games in 2018, the same year be graduated from Bowdoin College, before stepping away from the sport. He resumed his career in 2021 and won three medals (including a gold in mixed relay team event) at the 2022 Beijing Games. Adicoff entered this year’s Games determined to win his first individual gold and he did even better, winning three gold medals.

Kate Delson

Event/Discipline: Para snowboarding / women’s cross lower limb impairment, class 2; women’s banked slalom lower limb impairment class 2
Medal: Silver; Gold
Hometown: San Diego, California
Approximate distance to Cortina d’Ampezzo: 6,100

Road to Glory: Delson began snowboarding at age 6 and regularly was the only para-athlete in competitions she entered. At age 20 in 2025, Delson became the youngest member of the U.S. para snowboard team , and she has wasted no time making an impact at her first Paralympic Winter Games, winning a silver medal in women’s cross lower limb impairment, class 2, before adding a gold in women’s banked slalom lower limb impairment, class 2.

Noah Elliott

Event/Discipline: Para snowboarding / men’s cross lower limb impairment, class 1; men’s banked slalom lower limb impairment class 1
Medal: Silver; Gold
Hometown: St. Charles, Missouri
Approximate distance to  Cortina d’Ampezzo: 4,900 miles

Road to Glory: Elliott lost part of his left leg to osteosarcoma that was discovered when he was just 15. He won gold at the 2018 Paralympics in banked slalom, lower limb 1 impaired, and bounced back from an injury-marred Games in 2022 to win two medals in Italy, one silver and one gold.

Kendall Gretsch

Event/Discipline: Para biathlon / Women’s sprint sitting; women’s individual sitting; women’s sprint pursuit sitting (gold); Para Cross-Country Skiing / women’s 10km interval start sitting (bronze)
Medal: Gold (women’s spring pursuit sitting); Silver (sprint sitting ); Bronze (x2; individual sitting and women’s 10km interval start sitting)
Hometown: Downers Grove, Illinois
Approximate distance to Val di Fiemme: 4,500 miles

Road to Glory: Born with spina bifida, Gretsch won three triathlon world championships, but when her discipline was not included in the Paralympic games, she transitioned to Para nordic skiing. She won two golds in that event at the Games in PyeongChang in 2018, then won the Paratriathlon at the Paralympics in Tokyo in 2021, making her only the fifth American to win a gold at both the summer and winter Paralympics. She has added two more medals to her tally in Italy, including another gold, this time for sprint sitting

Patrick Halgren

Event/Discipline: Para alpine skiing / Men’s super-G standing
Medal: Silver
Hometown: Tolland, Connecticut
Approximate distance to Cortina d’Ampezzo: 4,000 miles

Road to Glory: Halgren spent more than a month in a coma after a motorcycle accident that also claimed most of his left leg. When he emerged, his brother, Sven, encouraged him to try alpine skiing. Halgren became a Paralympian despite losing Sven to a motorcycle accident in 2016. By 2022 he was competing at the Paralympic Games, and he won his first medal this year in Italy, honoring his brother and calling it, “the best day of my life — until tomorrow.”

Brenna Huckaby

Event/Discipline: Para snowboarding / women’s banked slalom lower limb impairment class 2
Medal: Bronze
Hometown: Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Approximate distance to Cortina d’Ampezzo: 5,100 miles

Road to Glory: Huckaby overcame the osteosarcoma that cost her most of her right leg as a child in order to find success at the Paralympic Games, winning double gold in snowboard cross and banked slalom in 2018. She then had to take on a more political fight, battling the International Paralympic Committee after it announced plans to cut those events for 2022 to focus on events for less impaired athletes. Huckaby won the right to compete in those medal events in court and then won a gold and a bronze in Beijing. The mother of two then won another medal in Cortina.

Andrew Kurka

Event/Discipline: Para alpine skiing / Men’s super-G sitting
Medal: Bronze
Hometown: Palmer, Alaska
Approximate distance to Cortina d’Ampezzo: 4,800 miles

Road to Glory: Kurka won six Alaska state championships in wrestling as a child before an ATV accident left him with severely damaged vertebrae. In 2018 he became the first Alaska native to win a Paralympic medal, taking home a gold in sitting downhill and a silver in super-G. He added a bronze in Cortina. Back home he runs a bed-and-breakfast to give people with disabilities the chance to explore the wilderness of Alaska.

Oksana Masters

Event/Discipline: Para biathlon / women’s sprint sitting; Para cross-country skiing / women’s sprint sitting; women’s 10km interval start sitting; women’s 20km interval start sitting
Medal: Gold (3); Bronze (2okm interval start sitting)
Hometown: Louisville, Kentucky
Approximate distance to Cortina d’Ampezzo: 4,800 miles

Road to Glory: The only thing more remarkable than Masters’ many athletic accomplishments is the journey she took to achieving them. Born in Ukraine, she was the victim of radiation-related birth effects from the Chernobyl disaster. She was abandoned by her parents and lived in an orphanage where she suffered unspeakable trauma before being adopted by an American college professor and moving to the U.S. She eventually had both legs amputated, but started adaptive rowing at age 13 in 2002. By 2012 she was competing in the first of what is now eight Paralympic Games, and she is the most decorated Winter Paralympic athlete in U.S. history. In all, combining her exploits in both summer and winter Games, she has won 13 gold medals, seven silver and four bronze.

Sydney Peterson

Event/Discipline: Para cross-country / women’s sprint classic standings; women’s 10km interval start classic standing; women’s 20km interval start free standing
Medal: Gold (10 km and 20 kminterval start); Silver (sprint)
Hometown: Lake Elmo, Minnesota
Approximate distance to Cortina d’Ampezzo: 4,700 miles

Road to Glory: Reaching the Paralympics for the first time in 2022 — where she won three medals, including a gold — was not the culmination of Peterson’s path to overcoming adversity. Diagnosed with the neurological disorder dystonia in her left arm as a child, her worsening effects led her to undergo, in 2023, an invasive brain operation that involved putting an electrode into her brain and connecting it to a battery pack in her chest. Remarkably, that same year she graduated from St. Lawrence University with a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience (she is currently pursuing her PhD in that field at the University of Utah). This year she returned to the Paralympics and has now won seven career medals in that competition.

Mike Schultz

Event/Discipline: Para snowboarding / men’s banked slalom lower limb impairment class 1
Medal: Bronze
Hometown: Kimball, Minnesota
Approximate distance to Cortina d’Ampezzo: 4,600 miles

Road to Glory: Not only did Schultz add to his career Paralympic medal haul in Italy — he’s now won four medals overall — he has contributed to the success of Team USA elsewhere, as the U.S. Paralympic snowboard team uses the prosthetic knee (called Moto Knee) and foot (Versa Foot) that he developed and patented through his company, BioDapt.