Oksana Masters and Kendall Gretsch pose with their medals after the women’s 15-kilometer sitting cross-country race during the World Para Snow Sports Championships on Jan. 18, 2022 in Lillehammer, Norway.
Nordic Skiing
Cross-country skiing has been part of the Paralympic Winter Games from the start in 1976, with biathlon joining the party in 1988. Today the disciplines — which in the Paralympics both operate under the banner of Nordic skiing — might be Team USA’s greatest strength. Though stars like Kendall Gretsch and Oksana Masters are known for piling up the medals, the U.S. boasts plenty of depth, with Jake Adicoff, Sydney Peterson and Aaron Pike also collecting medals at the recent world championships in Lillehammer.
Athlete Spotlight: Kendall Gretsch and Oksana Masters
How can you pick just one? The sit skiing superstars are often 1-2 in their races, and their history-making similarities hardly stop there.
In 2018, Gretsch became the first American to win an Olympic or Paralympic medal in biathlon, and she also added a second gold in cross-country skiing. Then last summer she won the paratriathlon in Tokyo, becoming just the fifth American to claim gold in both the Summer and Winter Paralympics.
Masters also won two Nordic skiing gold medals in 2018, bumping her career total to eight Paralympic medals, including a 2012 bronze as a rower. Then, in Tokyo, she won two gold medals as a cyclist, joining Gretsch in the exclusive club of Summer and Winter champs.
Key Date: March 5
Sit skier Dan Cnossen was Team USA’s most decorated athlete at the 2018 Paralympics, coming home to Topeka, Kansas, with six medals. The former Navy SEAL claimed his lone gold in the 7.5-kilometer biathlon. This year’s short race is 6-kilometers, and it kicks off the Nordic competition at the Zhangjiakou National Biathlon Centre Norwest of Beijing.
Read the Meet the Team story to get to know the full Nordic ski team.
