From the FasterSkier archive — posts syndicated from athletes’ and coaches’ own blogs between 2004 and 2012, kept online as published. Current coverage is at fasterskier.com.
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Team USA won its first-ever mixed relay gold to close out the cross-country competition at the Paralympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 on Sunday at Zhangjiakou National Biathlon Centre in Zhangjiakou, China.
Team USA’s 4 x 2.5-kilometer mixed relay featured Oksana Masters, Sydney Peterson, Dan Cnossen and Jake Adicoff guided by Sam Wood. They stormed to a 25:59.3 gold-medal finish.
China took silver in 26:25.3, and Team Canada captured bronze in 27:00.6. Defending world and Paralympic champions Ukraine finished fourth.
“I could not be more proud and more excited,” Cnossen said. “Really, it’s an honor to be part of this team knowing the caliber of athletes that I got to ski with.”
Cnossen, 41, became the most seasoned medalist for Team USA in Beijing. The gold-medal win also earned Masters a place in the history books as the most decorated U.S. Winter Paralympian with 14 career Winter Paralympic medals.
The 2022 Paralympic gold medal mixed relay team: guide Sam Wood, Oksana Masters, Sydney Peterson, Jake Adicoff, and Dan Cnossen (left to right). (Photo: Mark Reis / TeamUSA)
The relays were the only team events on the Para cross-country skiing program. The mixed relay featured four fast 2.5-kilometer laps that can be skied by an alternating team of two, three or four skiers and at least one man and one woman.
Masters raced a strong first leg to hand off to now three-time Paralympic medalist Peterson for leg two. Cnossen skied leg three to hold Team USA in fourth place. Adicoff and Wood turned up the heat for the final lap, rocketing into first place and never looking back.
“We started that so hot, “Adicoff said. “We were just really gas in the beginning, no holding back in the first part. By the time we were at the top of the course, we skied into the lead. From there, we just had to stay on our feet and bring it home. Getting that energy from our teammates for that first part of the race was critical.”
Jake Adicoff crosses the line for Paralympic gold in the 4 x 2.5 k mixed team relay. (Photo: Mark Reis / TeamUSA)
The American team competed with athletes across the sitting, standing and visually impaired classifications. The team felt confident coming into the race after strong podium performances across each classification over the last eight days of Paralympic competition.
“It’s not just one athlete carrying the load,” Cnossen said. “We have really, really strong athletes in all the categories. For me, I didn’t have some of the individual success here that I’ve had in the past, but it just goes to show when you get to be part of a team that lifts the performance.”
“It’s so much better being part of a team,” Peterson said. “There were five of us out there today, and I think all of us had great races. Thanks to everyone else supporting us back home and all the Team USA staff here supporting us.”
The team of Oksana Masters, Sydney Peterson, Jake Adicoff (with guide Sam Wood) and Dan Cnossen, take Paralympic gold in the mixed team relay. (Photo: Mark Reis / TeamUSA)
The gold-medal win fueled the 4 x 2.5-kilometer open relay, the final competition for Para Nordic in Beijing.
First-time Paralympians Max Nelson, guided by Simi Hamilton, and Drew Shea teamed up with veterans Kendall Gretsch and Ruslan Reiter for the final relay. The team placed ninth overall in 33:03.0.
“It was fun to watch everyone ski in the first race and to go out there and just give it all you got,” Reiter said.
Team Ukraine won gold in 28:05.3 thanks to a strong last leg by Anatolii Kovalevskyi guided by Oleksandr Mukshyn. France finished second for silver in 28:30.4, and Norway held onto bronze in 28:41.0.
Max Nelson, the youngest skier on the U.S. Para Nordic team in Beijing, fought for Team USA from the very start of the race in the leadoff leg.
“It was pretty crazy at the start trying to fight off a couple skiers for my spot,” Nelson said. “But I’m just honored to be here and race for Team USA. It was a great day.”
Max Nelson and guide Simi Hamilton lead off for Team The team of Oksana Masters, Sydney Peterson, Jake Adicoff (with guide Sam Wood) and Dan Cnossen, take Paralympic gold in the mixed team relay. (Photo: Mark Reis / TeamUSA)
The athletes made the most of the time on their course together in a sport that is normally focused on individual racing. Gretsch, who won three medals in biathlon and competed in all three cross-country races at these Games, said it’s exciting to see the athletes race head-to-head across the classifications.
“It is so crazy because there’s such a yo-yo between the legs of it so you can really like never count yourself out until the very end,” Gretsch said. “Everyone just has to go and give it their all for 2.5-kilometers.”
First-time Paralympian Drew Shea said this was a great way to end his first Games experience.
“This is pretty special in such an individual sport, just being able to fight for the next person who’s out there,” Shea said. “It’s not about you out there. It’s about the team so you’re just trying to make up every second and grind it out.”
Team USA’s Para Nordic skiers closed out a successful Paralympic Winter Games with 14 medals (four gold, eight silver and two bronze.)
Want to follow Team USA athletes during the Paralympic Winter Games Beijing 2022? Visit www.teamusa.org/beijing-2022-paralympic-games to view the competition schedule, medal table and results.
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Author Bio:
Katie Grunik is a digital content creator for TeamUSA.org. She is covering her second Olympic & Paralympic Games for teamusa.org and currently serves as the digital content coordinator for the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee.
Oksana Masters skis to silver in the women’s sitting middle-distance cross country event. (Photo: Mark Reis / Team USA)
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Team USA Nordic skier Oksana Masters (Louisville, Kentucky) skied her way into the record books on Saturday at the Paralympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.
Masters won the silver medal in the women’s sitting cross-country middle-distance at the Zhangjiakou Biathlon Center, her sixth medal of Beijing 2022 and 16th overall medal in her Paralympic career, which is the fourth-most Paralympic medals by a U.S. athlete.
A star in both the winter and summer Paralympic Games, Masters has now won eight Paralympic medals in cross-country, five in biathlon, two in Para-cycling and one in rowing. Her eight cross-country medals are the most ever by a U.S. Paralympian and her 13 overall Winter Paralympic medals ties alpine skiers Sarah Billmeier and Sarah Will as the most all-time by a U.S. Paralympian.
Oksana Masters skis to silver in the women’s sitting middle-distance cross country event. (Photo: Thomas Lovelock for OIS / Team USA)
On Saturday in warm conditions and slushy snow, Masters skied the middle-distance 7.5-kilometer course in a time of 25:24.7 — 37.2 seconds away from gold. China’s Hongqiong Yang won in a factored time of 24:47 and her teammate Jing Ma won bronze in 26:22.
Kendall Gretsch (Downers Grove, Ill.) placed sixth, with a time of 27:47.
“Today was a really tough day. The combination of the fresh snow and the warm temperatures made for a brutal race,” said Gretsch, who will head home from Beijing 2022 with three medals from her individual races. “I’m proud of my performance here. I came out every race and gave it everything I had. I wanted a little more and was hoping to do a little bit better, but I can’t be upset that I gave everything I had.”
Together, the duo of Masters and Gretsch have won nine medals across six days of biathlon and cross-country racing at Beijing 2022, and the U.S. Nordic team as a whole has won 13 medals. With individual racing now concluded, the Nordic racing action finishes on Sunday with the mixed relays on the final day of Beijing 2022.
Jake Adicoff and guide Sam Woods race the middle-distance freestyle race in Zhangjiakou. (Photo: Thomas Lovelock for OIS / Team USA)Ruslan Reiter skates to 10th place in the middle-distance standing cross country event. (Photo: Thomas Lovelock for OIS / Team USA)
In Saturday’s standing middle-distance, Jake Adicoff (Sun Valley, Idaho), with guide Sam Wood (Harpswell, Maine), placed sixth in the men’s vision impaired category. Team USA’s Ruslan Reiter (Manchester, Maine) scored a top-10 finish in the men’s standing middle-distance, placing 10th, while teammate Drew Shea (Vienna, Virginia) finished 19th.
Sydney Peterson (Lake Elmo, Minnesota) who has won two medals in Beijing 2022 in her debut Paralympic Games, led the U.S. women in the standing middle-distance with a sixth-place finish. Dani Aravich (Boise, Idaho) scored her second top-10 finish of these Games, placing ninth. Two-time Paralympian Grace Miller (Palmer, Alaska) placed 16th. In the men’s sitting middle-distance, six-time Paralympian Aaron Pike (Park Rapids, Minnesota) led the way for the U.S. with a 12th-place finish. Josh Sweeney (Glendale, Arizona) took 24th.
Sydney Peterson takes sixth in the standing middle-distance cross country race in Zhangjiakou. (Photo: Thomas Lovelock for OIS / Team USA)
To follow and watch U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing competition from the 2022 Beijing Paralympics, tune in to NBC, which features more than 230 hours of coverage across NBC, Peacock, USA Network, the Olympic Channel, NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports App.
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Considering that March is Women’s History Month, U.S. Paralympic Nordic skiers Oksana Masters and Kendall Gretsch are certainly making their fair share of contributions to the history books.
Masters and Gretsch picked up gold and silver medals, respectively, on Friday at the Paralympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, with Masters winning the women’s individual sitting biathlon in 42:17.9 and Gretsch finishing second in 42:23.7.
It was the third time within a week the pair, who train together in Bozeman, Montana, podiumed at the Zhangjiakou National Biathlon Centre. Combined, they have eight medals at these Paralympics, more than half of Team USA’s total medal haul.
Masters is now a 15-time Paralympic medalist — tying her with John Morgan for the fifth most Paralympic medals by a U.S. athlete — and a six-time Paralympic champion. Already at these Games she had won a gold in the sprint biathlon, and silvers in the middle-distance biathlon, long-distance cross-country and sprint cross-country events.
Oksana Masters races to gold in the women’s individual biathlon during the 2022 Beijing Paralympic Winter Games. (Photo: Chloe Knott for OIS / TeamUSA)
Following her first biathlon gold, she posted on Instagram: “Some feelings can’t be put into words. I am beyond proud to stand on the podium representing the heart, fight, love, resiliency, and pure joy for two countries,” referring to the U.S. and Ukraine, the latter being her birth country.
“I not only finally got to hold my dream, but I also am sharing parts of it with my home country of Ukraine especially for the young kids with disabilities. I want to make every start line mean something, make it really count for more than a result. That’s why I will be donating proceeds of my prize money from the Paralympics here to No Child Forgotten managed by Global Giving and Bridge Kids Charity, supporting children living with physical disabilities in Ukraine – many of them with single moms.”
Kendall Gretsch skis for silver in the women’s sitting individual biathlon event during the 2022 Paralympic Winter Games. (Photo: Chloe Knott for OIS / TeamUSA)
Gretsch, who is still the reigning world champion in the individual biathlon, is now a six-time Paralympic medalist. This marked her first career silver medal, and she now has the entire collection of colors from Beijing 2022, having already won gold in the middle-distance biathlon and bronze in the sprint biathlon.“Today was an awesome day,” Gretsch said. “For me and the U.S. team it’s always fun to go one-two. We’re both shooting and skiing well, and so it was a fun race today.”
In the men’s individual sitting biathlon, six-time Paralympic medalist and former U.S. Navy SEAL Dan Cnossen was the top American finisher, taking seventh in 42:46.9. Six-time Paralympian Aaron Pike was ninth in 43:19.0. It was the third top-10 finish for both Cnossen and Pike at these Paralympics.
Dan Cnossen hits the range during the men’s individual sitting biathlon race in Zhangjiakou, where he finished seventh. (Photo: Chloe Knott for OIS / TeamUSA)
The U.S. Para Nordic skiers will return to the National Biathlon Centre on Saturday for the cross-country middle distance races.
Want to follow Team USA athletes during the Paralympic Winter Games Beijing 2022? Visit TeamUSA.org/Beijing-2022-Paralympic-Games to view the competition schedule, medal table and results.
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Author Bio:
Stuart Lieberman has covered Paralympic sports for more than 10 years, including for the International Paralympic Committee at the London 2012, Sochi 2014 and PyeongChang 2018 Games. He is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Team USA Para Nordic skiers Oksana Masters (Louisville, Kentucky) and Jake Adicoff (Sun Valley, Idaho), alongside guide Sam Wood (Harpswell, Maine) each won silver medals, and Sydney Peterson (Lake Elmo, Minnesota) took bronze in an exciting, fast-paced day of cross-country sprint racing at the Paralympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.
Through five days of competition, the U.S. Para Nordic team has collected 10 medals in cross-country and biathlon at Beijing 2022, with three more days of racing to go at the Zhangjiakou Biathlon Center.
Oksana Masters takes silver in the women’s sitting sprint. (Photo: Mark Reis / Team USA)
Masters has won four medals — in all four races — at Beijing 2022 and now has won 14 medals in her Paralympic career. Masters, the 2021 world champion and 2018 cross-country sprint gold medalist from PyeongChang, finished just 1.7 seconds away from gold on Wednesday.
The cross-country and biathlon star powered up the hills on the 1-kilometer course and sprinted down the finish chute to nearly catch China’s Hongqiong Yang who won gold with a time of 3:18.2. Masters finished in 3:19.9 and Panpan Li of China earned the bronze in 3:31.0.
Team USA’s Kendall Gretsch (Downers Grove, Ill.) placed fifth, in 3:37.3.
Adicoff and Wood won their second silver medal of Beijing 2022 in the men’s visually impaired category, just 0.8 seconds away from gold. The duo hammered the sprint cross-country course in a time of 3:20.3, just behind Canada’s Brian McKeever, guided by Russell Kennedy. Sweden’s Zebastian Modin, guided by Emil Joensson Haag, took the bronze in a time of 3:37.8.
The silver is Adicoff’s third medal of his Paralympic career — and he’s gunning for two more cross-country medals in Beijing.
Jake Adicoff (right) with guide Sam Wood earn a second silver medal in the visually impaired freestyle sprint, their second medal in two races at the 2022 Beijing Paralympics. (Photo: Joe Kusumoto / Team USA)
“I said it before, but I’ll say it again — ‘We’re going to gun for gold,’” said Adicoff who is a three-time Paralympian who won silver in the 10k cross-country at the 2018 Paralympic Games in PyeongChang.
“Two more to go. We’re hoping for four for four (on the podium) so we’re right on schedule,” Wood said.
Adicoff said the fun of cross-country sprints is the opportunity to cheer on his fellow U.S. Para Nordic teammates. The entire team raced on Wednesday, which began with qualification rounds, a round of semifinals and the final to determine the Paralympic medalists.
“Being with this team is so much fun. Especially on sprint day. Sprint days are the best. You get to watch everyone and it’s an absolute blast,” said Adicoff. “The team had a good day, so we’re psyched.”
Peterson, who is competing in her first Paralympic Games, won her second medal of Beijing 2022, adding to the silver she won in long-distance cross-country. She completed the sprint cross-country in 4:12.1, behind Canada’s Natalie Wilkie (4:05.1) and Norway’s Vilde Nilsen (4:08.1).
“It was a super challenging race. There were a lot of components to it going throughout the day, but I’m super excited about how it all stacked up,” Peterson said. “I had a ton of people that were out there helping and cheering and it wouldn’t have been possible without all their support.”
Grace Miller races to 14th in the women’s standing freestyle sprint. (Photo: Mark Reis / Team USA)Visually impaired athlete Max Nelson sprints to 14th with guide Simi Hamilton. (Photo: Mark Reis / Team USA)
A total of 14 U.S. athletes competed in the day’s events. For the women’s sitting sprint, Lera Doederlein and Erin Martin finished 14th and 16th respectively while Grace Miller took 14th in the women’s standing. In the men’s sitting competition, Dan Cnossen finished just outside a qualifying spot with a 13th place finish while Josh Sweeney finished 19th. Max Nelson took 14th place in the men’s visually impaired qualification round while Drew Shae covered the course in the first round of the men’s standing for 21st.
American teammates Dani Aravich, Ruslan Reiter and Aaron Pike made their way to the semifinal round finishing the sprint competition in 8th, 12th and 12th respectively.
Aaron Pike races into the sprint semifinal, finishing 12th. (Photo: Mark Reis / Team USA)
Nordic athletes will enjoy a rest day on Thursday. Racing is scheduled to resume on Friday, with the men’s and women’s individual biathlon. To follow and watch U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing competition from Beijing 2022 on NBC, which features more than 230 hours of coverage across NBC, Peacock, USA Network, the Olympic Channel, NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports App. All events will be streamed live on NBC’s Peacock. Follow U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for daily updates from Beijing.
Kendall Gretsch takes gold in the sitting middle-distance biathlon event in Zhangjiakou. (Photo: Mark Reis / Team USA)
By Stephen Meyers
ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Team USA’s dynamic duo of Kendall Gretsch (Downers Grove, Ill.) and Oksana Masters (Louisville, Kentucky) won gold and silver in the women’s sitting biathlon middle-distance on the fourth day of competition at the Paralympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.
The U.S. Para Nordic team has now collected seven medals across biathlon and cross-country skiing at Beijing 2022, with four more days of racing to go at the Zhangjiakou Biathlon Center.
For Gretsch, Saturday’s gold medal is the fourth gold —and fifth medal overall — in her Paralympic career. She won gold in the 6k biathlon and 12k cross-country events at PyeongChang 2018 and won gold in Para triathlon at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo six months ago.
Kendall Gretsch races to the line to take gold in the sitting middle-distance biathlon event. (Photo: Mark Reis / Team USA)
The dual sport star now has two medals at Beijing 2022, as she began the biathlon competition with a bronze in the women’s sitting biathlon sprint.
After receiving a penalty in the first round of shooting in Tuesday’s race, Gretsch shot clean the remaining three rounds and skied strong, with quick shooting, in the second half of the 10-kilometer race to overtake Masters and win gold in a time of 33:12.
“I’m really excited with today‘s race. I had a good day on skis and I’m happy with our performance. Hopefully we can build on that for the rest of the races too,” said Gretsch, who praised the U.S. Para Nordic team’s culture and support.
“We have such a strong program and great support from our team. The coaching and everything from waxing our skis so they are really fast, and helping us with nutrition, all the support that we get from the staff at Team USA is huge.”
Kendall Gretsch (right) and Oksana Masters (left) go 1-2 in the sitting middle-distance biathlon event during the 2022 Beijing Paralympic Winter Games. (Photo: Mark Reis / Team USA)
For Masters, Tuesday’s silver is the third medal she’s won in Beijing and 13th overall in her Paralympics career. She again shot clean — like she did en route to winning gold in the women’s sitting biathlon sprint — and finished 9 seconds behind Gretsch, in 33:21.
“I’m excited with a silver medal. This is my second biathlon medal in the Paralympic Games. This is my second consecutive biathlon medal that I’d shot clean for, which I don’t normally do,” said Masters who also won silver in long-distance cross-country.
“I’m so proud of myself. I was doubting myself coming in here and I think now what I can do is have confidence knowing I have put the work into it and I can do it. And try to make it a little faster so I’m not just giving away time in the race trying to get that shot.”
Oksana Masters goes three-for-three, adding a silver medal to her growing collection in the sitting middle-distance biathlon competition. (Photo: Mark Reis / Team USA)
Germany’s Anja Wicker won the bronze, in a time of 35:45.
Team USA’s Lera Doederlein (San Diego, California), competing in her first Paralympic Games, placed ninth.
Dan Cnossen (Topeka, Kansas) was the top U.S. finisher in the men’s sitting biathlon middle-distance, where he placed 12th with a time of 34:10. Aaron Pike (Park Rapids, Minnesota) finished 15th in a time of 36:49.
Dan Cnossen competes in the middle-distance sitting biathlon event during the 2022 Beijing Paralympics. (Photo: Mark Reis / Team USA)
Tuesday’s racing action also included biathlon middle-distance events in the standing and visually impaired categories.
The lone U.S. athlete competing in the women’s race, Dani Aravich (Boise, Idaho) skied to 11th place in her second Winter Paralympic race. She made her Paralympic debut in track and field at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo.
Dani Aravich skis to 11t in the middle distance biathlon competition, her second Winter Paralympic appearance. (Photo: Mark Reis / Team USA)
In the men’s standing biathlon race, Ruslan Reiter (Manchester, Maine) placed 12th and Drew Shea (Vienna, Virginia) took 13th. Reiter is competing in his second Winter Paralympics, while Shea is making his Paralympic debut. No U.S. athletes competed in the visually impaired category.
Racing returns to the Zhangjiakou Biathlon Center on Wednesday, March 9 with the men’s and women’s sprint cross-country.
Ruslan Reiter on course during the middle-distance biathlon competition in Zhangjiakou. (Photo: Mark Reis / Team USA)
To follow and watch U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing competition from the Beijing 2022 Paralympic Games, tune in to NBC, which features more than 230 hours of coverage across NBC, Peacock, USA Network, the Olympic Channel, NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports App. Follow U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for daily updates from Beijing.
Oksana Masters races to a silver medal in the long-distance cross country sitting event on day two of the 2022 Beijing Paralympic Winter Games. (Photo: Mark Reis / Team USA)
U.S. Para Nordic star Oksana Masters (Louisville, Kentucky) won silver in the women’s sitting long-distance cross-country race on Sunday, her second medal of the Paralympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.
Masters, a cross-country skier and biathlete, also won gold in the women’s sitting biathlon sprint on Saturday and now has 12 career Paralympic medals between the winter and summer Paralympic Games. Sunday’s silver medal comes six months after winning double gold in Para-cycling at the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020.
The 2022 world champion in long-distance cross-county, Masters raced the 15-kilometer course at the Zhangjiakou Biathlon Center in a time of 43:38.8 — just 32 seconds behind China’s Hongqiong Yang, who won the gold with a factored time of 43:06. China’s Panpan LI finished with the bronze in 45:17.
Master’s silver medal matches the silver she won in long-distance cross-country at the Paralympic Games Sochi 2014.
Oksana Masters is on a medal streak, adding silver in the long distance cross country race to her gold in the biathlon sitting sprint. (Photo: Mark Reis / Team USA)
“I was trying so hard to get the gold,” said Masters, who admits she could have raced faster from the start. “I was trying to upgrade from silver in Sochi and the PyeongChang bronze, but I’m just so happy to be able to fight my way onto the podium.
“I can’t wait to see the U.S. flag being raised today at the medal ceremony [for biathlon sprint]. I was trying to not do my classic ‘go out hard and then die.’ Looking back maybe I was too reserved in the first few laps and then got to a spot where I didn’t have enough space to make up. This course is not really technical so there’s not a lot of places to make up time either. I wish there was more elements of skiing in it, but I think it challenged me in a really different way and I’m excited to see what the next few races have.”
Kendall Gretsch skis to fourth in the women’s long-distance event. (Photo: Mark Reis / Team USA)
Teammate Kendall Gretsch (Downers Grove, Ill.) finished just off the podium, in fourth, with a time of 46:26. She finished second, behind Masters, in long-distance cross-country at the Lillehammer 2022 World Para Snow Sports Championships in January. She won the bronze medal in Saturday’s sitting biathlon sprint.
Dan Cnossen (Topeka, Kansas) led the U.S. men in the sitting category, placing sixth with a time of 49:22. Former sled hockey champion turned Nordic skier Josh Sweeney (Glendale, Arizona), placed 16th in his Nordic debut. For Cnossen, Sunday’s long-distance race offered a new personal challenge.
“I don’t care what the result was today,” Cnossen said. “For me, this was a personal test. In my opinion, this is the hardest race that we do in the cross-country discipline at 18 kilometers. In the last Games we had in 2018, it was a 15-kilometer race.”
Dan Cnossen races the sitting long-distance cross country event on day 2 of the 2022 Beijng Paralympic Winter Games. (Photo: Mark Reis / Team USA)
“I’ve never done an 18-kilometer, and I just wanted that personal challenge. There’s a battle going on in your head [during the race]. And it’s against the part of me that wants to go a little easier or softer, to kind of not challenge myself as much. And so, it’s a personal test to see what I could do and I’m happy with that. I executed my race plan really well. I had gas in the tank on the last lap, which was the plan. So, success for me.”
A newcomer to Para Nordic skiing, Sweeney isn’t new to the Winter Paralympics. The retired Marine Corps sergeant earned a gold medal as a member of the U.S. sled hockey team at the Paralympic Winter Games Sochi 2014. After retiring from sled hockey, Sweeney competed for a few years in elite paratriathlon before transitioning to Para Nordic skiing in 2021 through the Challenged Athletes Foundation. He notes his experiences from the different sports aids him on the Nordic course.
“Having the different sport experience is [helpful]. Knowing, especially in the triathlon world, what good pacing can do for you and not getting too carried away with what everyone else is doing is big,” Sweeney said. “I’ve learned over all these sports that you have to trust yourself and your coaches, respect the process and just put in the work and you’ll be alright.”
Josh Sweeney races the men’s long-distance cross country sitting event on day two of the 2022 Beijing Paralympic Winter Games. (Photo: Mark Reis / Team USA)
China’s Peng Zheng and Zhongwu Mao, won gold and silver, respectively, and Canada’s Collin Cameron won bronze.
Racing continues Monday in Zhangjiakou with the men’s and women’s long-distance cross-country in the standing and vision impaired categories. Watch U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing competition from the 2022 Beijing Paralympics on NBC, which features more than 230 hours of coverage across NBC, Peacock, USA Network, the Olympic Channel, NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports App. All events will be streamed live on NBC’s Peacock. Follow U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for daily updates from Beijing.
Oksana Masters (left) takes gold while Kendall Gretsch (right) earns bronze in the sitting biathlon sprint to open the 2022 Paralympic Winter Games. (Photo: Mark Reis / Team USA)
By Stephen Meyers | March 05, 2022, 7:27 a.m. (ET)
Oksana Masters (Louisville, Kentucky) won the first gold medal for the U.S. at the Paralympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 on Saturday in the women’s sitting biathlon sprint while teammate Kendall Gretsch (Downers Grove, Illinois) earned bronze on a cold, breezy day that included racing in the men’s and women’s biathlon sprint in the sitting, standing and vision impaired categories.
Masters, a biathlete and cross-country skier, won her fifth career Paralympic gold medal and 11th overall medal between the Summer and Winter Paralympic Games. Saturday’s gold was her first in biathlon; she won two silvers at the Paralympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 in the 6k and 12.5k biathlon.
“I can’t believe it, this is so amazing,” Masters said. “To be able to start off the Paralympic Games in Beijing and bring home a gold medal for Team USA is absolutely incredible. And it’s incredible because I get to do it with my teammate on the podium by my side again.”
“I think this just shows that there’s amazing stuff that’s going to happen for Team USA in the Para Nordic program.”
Oksana Masters takes her first gold of the 2022 Paralympic Winter Games in the sitting biathlon sprint. (Photo: Mark Reis / Team USA)
Masters now owns Paralympic gold medals in biathlon, cross-country skiing and Para-cycling. She won two cycling golds at the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020 six months ago.
Masters finished the 6k sitting biathlon sprint race in a time of 20:51.2. China’s Yilin Shan finished 15 seconds back with a time of 21:06 to earn the silver.
Gretsch — who also won gold at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo six months ago, in paratriathlon — earned the bronze, with a time of 22:47. The medal is the fourth of her Paralympic career. At PyeongChang 2018, Gretsch won gold in the 6k biathlon and 12k cross-country events.
“That was a tough race. The sprint is so short and you’re kind of going all-out the whole time. I’m happy to have the first race done and hopefully just build off today for the rest of the races,” said Gretsch, who also races the cross-country events. “It’s crazy [being back at the Paralympics six months after competing in Tokyo] and it’s feeling very different than Tokyo conditions today. I’m trying to channel how warm I was there. It’s always exciting to be at the Paralympics.”
Eighteen-year-old Lera Doederlein (San Diego, California) made her Paralympic debut on Saturday, also competing in the women’s sitting biathlon sprint, finishing ninth. It was Masters who encouraged Doederlein, who had been competing in sled hockey, to give Para Nordic skiing a try in 2019.
“It’s a pretty incredible experience for me to race [with Masters and Gretsch] especially since I’m only 18 years old and it’s my first Paralympics. It was incredible to experience this with them,” Doederlein said.
Dan Cnossen races to fourth place in the sitting biathlon sprint. (Photo: Mark Reis / Team USA)
Dan Cnossen (Topeka, Kansas), former Navy SEAL who won six medals in PyeongChang, led Team USA’s men on Saturday in the sitting biathlon sprint, placing fourth.
“I dug deep as far as I could, and this is perhaps the best biathlon race I’ve ever had. I know it may not have been my best result, but for me, it’s more about effort and I really think I put a complete race together today,” Cnossen said.
“Biathlon is a really challenging sport in the sense that you can always ski a little bit faster into the range or you can always try to take your first shot a little bit quicker, or the shots two, three, four, five a little bit quicker. I’ve got to be happy with how I raced today. I’m also happy to be out there with my teammate Aaron [Pike] and our women who had an awesome day. I would also say I’m really happy to see the Ukraine athletes out here today getting after it. With everything they’re going through, it’s inspiring to me to see them compete. I was thinking about them today when I was out there.”
Pike (Park Rapids, Minnesota) finished eighth. A constant in the Paralympics over the past decade, Pike is competing in his sixth Paralympic Games. He raced in Tokyo for U.S. Paralympics Track & Field, competing in the marathon.
Aaron Pike races to 8th in the sitting biathlon sprint to open the 2022 Beijing Paralympic Winter Games. (Photo: Mark Reis / Team USA)
In addition, Team USA had three athletes competing in the standing biathlon sprint.
Dani Aravich (Boise, Idaho), who also competed in track and field in Tokyo, placed 13th in her first race as a winter Paralympian.
In the men’s standing biathlon race, Ruslan Reiter (Manchester, Maine) placed 12th and Drew Shea (Vienna, Virginia) took 14th. Reiter is competing in his second Winter Paralympics, while Shea is making his Paralympic debut.
Ruslan Reiter races to 12th in the standing biathlon sprint. (Photo: Mark Reis / Team USA)
No U.S. athletes competed in the visually impaired category.
U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing athletes return to competition on Sunday, as cross-country action takes the stage with the men’s and women’s sitting long-distance races.
Follow and watch U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing competition from Beijing 2022 on NBC, which features more than 230 hours of coverage across NBC, Peacock, USA Network, the Olympic Channel, NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports App. All events will be streamed live on NBC’s Peacock. Follow U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for daily updates from Beijing.
Kendall Gretsch racing to her second gold medal of the 2018 Winter Paralympics in the women’s 12 k sitting cross-country race in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: US Paralympics/Joe Kusumoto)
There are a select few athletes who compete in both the summer and winter Olympics, and fewer still is the number of athletes who have won gold medals at the two. Para-athlete, Kendall Gretsch, holds this distinction having won two gold medals at Pyeongchang in 2018 and gold in the para-triathlon at Tokyo in 2021. With two Olympics in the span of six months, Gretsch was set for a big year.
In a TeamUSA interview Gretsch said, “When I got the news that Tokyo [2020] would be postponed, and Tokyo and the Beijing 2022 Winter Games would be six months apart, that was terrifying. In my mind, I was going to have a much different lead-up to Beijing, but now [speaking in 2021] looking back, it is comforting. Transitioning between two seasons has been something I have done for the past five years, and I know how to manage that transition well.”
Kendall Gretsch is a three time World Champion in the women’s PTWC classification. (Photo: International Paralympic Committee)
Gretsch was born with spina bifida, which resulted in her leg muscles not fully developing. She started competing in para triathlon in 2012 and had her international debut in para-nordic skiing in 2017 after she began training with the Central Cross Country Ski Association in Madison, WI as a form of cross-training for para triathlon.
Triathlon was first added to the Paralympics at Rio in 2016, though Gretsch’s classification of PTWC2 was not initially included. Thus, the Tokyo games were the first opportunity for her to compete in the triathlon at the highest level. In a nail-biting finish, Gretsch narrowly took the victory, earning her third Olympic gold.
After roughly 26 kilometers of racing, Kendall Gretsch takes Paralympic Gold by meters. (Photo: Screenshot NBC Sports)
With the start of the Beijing paralympics a little over a month away, FasterSkier caught up with Gretsch in Östersund, Sweden as she recovered from the recent Para World Championships in Lillehammer and prepared for the next round of World Cup races, which were scheduled for January 27th to February 1sts.
By any measure, Gretsch dominated the competitions in Lillehammer. She earned three gold medals, coming in the middle distance classic sitting, biathlon long distance sitting, and biathlon middle distance sitting events. She also earned silver in the long distance freestyle sitting race, finishing behind her teammate Okansa Masters. Despite these strong performances, Gretsch was hesitant to read too much into what they might mean for the upcoming Paralympics.
“It was good,” she said, “I think it’s kind of funny to have a World Championships in the same year as the games, just because you know that everyone’s focus isn’t necessarily the World Championships and that everyone’s really preparing for Beijing.”
Oksana Masters (left) and Kendall Gretstch (right) go 1-2 in the women’s 15k sitting long distance cross country race in Lillehammer, Norway. (Photo: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
Given that the World Championships and Paralympics are only separated by two months, Gretsch explained that athletes would be approaching the World Championships racing differently. “Maybe they’re coming in really tired, so I think it’s harder to gauge where you are from that, because it’s not the main event of the year for everyone.”
Furthermore, the Chinese team was not present at the World Championships, which is another area of uncertainty for Gretsch. “We know that they are probably going to have a pretty strong team in Beijing,” she said, “so that’s kind of the big unknown – not having the chance to race them ahead of time.”
That being said, Gretsch was pleased to have this set of races as experiences before Beijing because, “it’s a pretty similar format, in terms of the number of races and the timing of them. So just being able to practice all of that is good. It’s definitely a little bit of a confidence boost, but you don’t know how everyone was showing up.”
Both gold medals in the biathlon events were essentially earned thanks to Gretsch’s shooting. For the past several years, she has been living at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, and with her focus on the para-triathlon event in Tokyo, time to practice shooting this past summer was scarce.
Kendall Gretsch takes aim during the women’s 6-kilometer sitting biathlon at the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games on Saturday in PyeongChang, South Korea. She won the race to become the first American woman to medal in a biathlon event at the Paralympics (or Olympics). (Photo: US Paralympics/Getty)
“With COVID restrictions and the area where I train, I didn’t have access to as much [shooting] as I would like to,” explained Gretsch, “but I was able this fall to get in some shooting post-Tokyo, and then we had some early camps this year where I got to spend a lot of time in Canmore was was able to shoot there.”
Looking towards the Paralympics at the beginning of March, the expectations for Gretsch to win medals is high after her performances in 2018 and 2021. When asked how she manages both her own expectations and the expectations of others Gretsch responded, “It’s hard because I would say, I’m the one that puts the highest expectations on myself. I think [I’m managing expectations by] just understanding that we have a lot of racing opportunities in Beijing, and taking it race by race, hopefully using each race to learn more about the course and where you can make up the most time.”
Kendall Gretsch (r) and Oksana Masters at the 2018 Paralympics medal ceremony for the women’s sitting 6 k biathlon sprint after winning gold and silver, respectively (Photo: U.S. Paralympics/Joe Kusumoto)
Having competed at one COVID Paralympics already would perhaps give Gretsch a mental advantage by knowing what to expect in terms of rules and restrictions. However, as she said, “it seems like there’s more unknowns about how the restrictions are going to be compared to Tokyo.” But, Grestch did admit, “I think there’s probably some advantage of having the expectations around daily testing and mask wearing and all of that. Just having had that experience I think will be helpful. And really, just the past year or so of racing, it’s definitely been pretty complicated so, just more experience of how to deal with that situation.”
Recently the para program in the US has been growing, both in terms of numbers and in terms of the number of categories they have athletes competing in (for example, sit ski, vs. visually impaired, vs. standing with a limb deficiency). When asked what it has been like to be part of this growth and to have a bigger team at events like World Championships or the Paralympics, Gretsch was excited to see the team grow.
“We just have more depth in all the different categories,” she explained, “and I think one of the places where that becomes really exciting is for relays. We have the potential to put together some really strong relays, probably for the first time ever.” Relay teams are structured based on a point system that factors in an athlete’s classification and gender.
American Kendall Gretsch (l) racing in the 4 x 2.5 k mixed relay at the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. Her team finished seventh. (Photo: U.S. Paralympics/Mark Reis)
“I think that’s something that has our whole team really excited,” continued Gretsch, “the idea that we can have a competitive relay, and that’s something that people can really train towards, and hopefully contribute to be a part of that relay.”
The Paralympics begin in Beijing on March 4th. Gretsch will be taking part in both cross-country and biathlon events throughout the competition schedule.
Oksana Masters crosses the finish line of a race in Lillehammer, Norway. (Photo: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
By Kristen Gowdy | Jan. 31, 2022, 6:02 p.m. (ET)
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO – Following a stellar world championships performance that saw Team USA earn 13 medals in Para Nordic disciplines, U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing today announced the six women, seven men and one guide who have been nominated to compete at the Paralympic Games Beijing 2022 in March.
Veteran athletes will lead the way in Beijing as Team USA looks to build on the 16 Paralympic medals won at the Paralympic Games PyeongChang 2018. Headlined by multi-time Paralympic medalists Oksana Masters (Louisville, Kentucky), Kendall Gretsch (Downers Grove, Illinois) and Dan Cnossen (Topeka, Kansas), the athletes nominated to the 2022 team sport a combined career total of 21 Paralympic medals. Of the 14 athletes, nine have previous Paralympic experience while five athletes will make their Paralympic debut.
“We have many athletes who thrive in these high-stakes competitions, who know what it means to represent Team USA as a Paralympian,” Eileen Carey, director of U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing, said. “We are looking to them, as well as our experienced coaching staff, to lead the newer athletes into Beijing 2022. We are motivated by the combination of experience and the high quality of our Paralympic rookies as a testament to the growth and bright future of our program; their success this Paralympic quad has shown us that we can reach new heights in March.”
A 10-time Paralympic medalist and recently crowned 10-time world champion, Masters is set to make her sixth Paralympic appearance. After winning double gold in Para-cycling at the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020, Masters has continued her success on the snow, earning a medal in every world cup competition in which she has competed, as well as five medals at the recent Lillehammer 2021 World Para Snow Sports Championships. In Lillehammer, the multi-sport phenom earned her ninth and 10th career world championship titles and will look to put an exclamation point on her already historic 2021-22 season on the world’s biggest stage.
Gretsch, who is putting together a world-class resumé herself this season, also won gold in Tokyo in paratriathlon. She led Team USA in Lillehammer with three world championship titles and also added a silver as she looks to repeat the double gold she won in PyeongChang. The 13-time world championship medalist is headed into Beijing as a heavy favorite in the biathlon discipline, having won both titles in the Para biathlon events in which she competed in Lillehammer.
A six-time Paralympic medalist and retired Navy SEAL, Cnossen earns his third Paralympic team nomination in 2022. All six of Cnossen’s Paralympic medals came in PyeongChang, where he dominated in both cross-country skiing and biathlon. Cnossen is at his best on the Paralympic stage, where he will look to repeat his success come March.
Paralympic silver medalist Jake Adicoff (Sun Valley, Idaho) will team up with longtime friend and guide Sam Wood (Harpswell, Maine) to lead the U.S. in the men’s visually impaired class for his third Paralympic appearance. After taking several years off following his podium performance in PyeongChang, Adicoff accepted an invitation to join the team for a training camp last February, and hasn’t faltered since. He and Wood enter Beijing as one of the top podium contenders in the men’s visually impaired field. The duo have been putting together Adicoff’s best racing of his career, having recently combined for three medals – one of each color – in Lillehammer.
Paralympians Aaron Pike (Park Rapids, Minnesota) and Josh Sweeney (Glendale, Arizona) round out the men’s sitting class for Team USA. Pike, who recently won his second career world championship medal, a silver in the men’s individual biathlon, makes his sixth career Paralympic team. Also a prolific wheelchair racer and marathoner, Pike is peaking at the right time, having been in the podium mix in nearly all of his races this season. He is seeking his first career Paralympic medal in Beijing.
Sweeney, meanwhile, makes his first Paralympic team in Para Nordic skiing, having transitioned to the sport following a 2014 Paralympic gold medal appearance in sled hockey. The 2014 Pat Tillman Award for Service winner and retired U.S. Marine Corps Sergeant picked up skiing through the Challenged Athletes Foundation.
The final sit skiers on the 2022 roster, Erin Martin (Seattle, Washington) and Lera Doederlein (San Diego, California) are set for their Paralympic debuts. A former rock climber, Martin found Para Nordic skiing after sustaining a T4 spinal cord injury while climbing. She is also a registered nurse care manager who has served during the COVID-19 pandemic. Doederlein, meanwhile, also competes in sled hockey and Para-cycling. At just 18 years old, Doederlein, who was adopted from Russia, has found a mentor in the Ukraine-born Masters.
Standing skiers Grace Miller (Palmer, Alaska), Ruslan Reiter (Manchester, Maine) and Dani Aravich (Boise, Idaho) also bring Paralympic experience to the team. Miller and Reiter competed in PyeongChang, where Reiter’s best finish was seventh in the cross-country mixed relay, while Miller finished 10th in the 15-kilometer cross-country skiing race. Aravich made her Paralympic debut as a track and field athlete in Tokyo and along with Masters, Gretsch and Pike, will compete in her second Paralympic Games in six months.
Making their first Paralympic appearances and rounding out Team USA’s roster is standing skier Drew Shea (Vienna, Virginia), and visually impaired athlete Max Nelson (Mahtomedi, Minnesota).
Relatively new to Para Nordic skiing, Shea recently moved to Bozeman, Montana, to pursue the sport competitively with Crosscut Mountain Sports Center, his club team. A rising star in the sport, the 17-year-old Nelson made history as a high school junior last year when he became the first visually impaired Nordic skier to win an individual conference title in Minnesota.
The Paralympic Games begin on March 4, and Para Nordic skiing competition kicks off on March 5. Following record-breaking coverage of the Tokyo Paralympic Games, NBC has announced a historic broadcast schedule for its Winter Paralympic programming, which features more than 230 hours of coverage across NBC, Peacock, USA Network, the Olympic Channel, NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports App. NBC’s scheduled programming also includes the first-ever Winter Paralympic Games primetime coverage.
For media requests and photo inquiries, please contact Kristen Gowdy at Kristen.Gowdy@usopc.org.
2022 U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing Paralympic Team
Women:
Dani Aravich, women’s standing
Lera Doederlein, women’s sitting
Kendall Gretsch, women’s sitting
Erin Martin, women’s sitting
Oksana Masters, women’s sitting
Grace Miller, women’s standing
Men:
Jake Adicoff (with guide Sam Wood), men’s visually impaired
The Para World Championships wrapped up in Lillehammer, Norway on Sunday January 23rd, with a mixed open relay event bringing athletes from across genders and race categories together into one thrilling capstone event.
Rewinding to where our previous coverage left off, Saturday’s schedule featured the final individual races of the Championships, a classic spring for standing athletes, and a cross country sprint for sprint skiers. As in able-bodied fields, a sprint involves a qualification round, followed by a semifinal and grand finale to decide the medalists. The number of athletes who make the semifinal varies based on category.
Highlighting the day, Oksana Masters took gold in the women’s sitting race, her sixth medal of the Championships (two of each color) and career 11th World Championship medal. This title was not certain until the final meters of the race, where Masters put in a final surge to overtake an athlete from Belarus just before the line.
Oksana Masters (right) sprints to the finish during the women’s sitting individual biathlon. (Photo: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
“It feels incredible,” Masters said in the Team USA press release. “It doesn’t feel that long ago that I was barely making finals in sprint, or I couldn’t finish a sprint without falling or breaking a pole. To be able to have a third consecutive world championship title in this event is just incredible.”
Another medal favorite based on her performances through the week, Kendall Gretsch also raced in the sitting finale, however, a late crash put her out of reach of the podium and she ended the day in fifth.
On the men’s side, Aaron Pike led the American men in the sitting sprint, placing well inside the top-12 to qualify for the semifinals. In his semi, Pike finished fifth and did not advance to the finale. Meanwhile, Dan Cnossen was 16th in qualification and did not advance to the rounds.
Dan Cnossen competes at the Para World Championships in Lillehammer. (Photo: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
In the women’s standing races, newcomer to the team Sydney Peterson earned her second silver medal of the week, in addition to a third place medal. Perhaps still gaining experience, Peterson felt her first two rounds of racing were not smooth, though it came together in the final round.
“I had some mishaps the first two races this morning so I’m glad that things worked out for the finals,” said Peterson to Team USA. “I’m pretty excited that was a really fun race. It will be fun to continue racing.”
A second standing athlete, Dani Aravich, was just shy of the top-eight in qualification, meaning she was unable to advance to the semifinal for her class.
Friends, teammates, and more recently athlete-guide pair, Jake Adicoff and Sam Wood fist bump after earning a gold medal in the 10k classic at the Para World Championships in Lillehammer. (Photo: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
“I’m feeling pretty good,” said Adicoff. “This is an improvement from the classic sprint in Canmore. We’re pretty happy with the result and it’s super fun racing out there. [We’re taking away] a little bit of confidence and then to be off that gold medal for two races now that’s what we’re looking for – gold in Beijing.”
On Sunday, the American squad fielded two relay teams in the mixed-gender, mixed-class 10-kilometer event. Given the variations in time based on sitting, standing, and subcategories within those groups, this makes for an interesting equation. Simultaneously, what better a way to highlight the diversity, talent, and teamwork seen across nations?
According to the daily Team USA press release, “relays were structured so that each athlete was assigned points based on their classification and gender, and the sum of each team’s total points could not exceed 335 for the mixed relay and 375 for the open relay. From there, it was head-to-head racing, and factored times did not come into play.”
Masters led an all-women’s team for the U.S., passing off to Peterson for the second leg, with Grestch racing third, and Aravich as anchor. Each of the women put together strong performances to keep their team within the top four, finishing in a cumulative time of 31:41.5.
The American women’s open relay team took fourth in the final race of the Para World Championships in Lillehammer. (Photo: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
“We didn’t know until yesterday how we were going to do the relays, so when our coaches told us it was all women, we were really excited,” Aravich explained in the press release. “When we looked at the points and how it was stacked up, we probably shot ourselves in the foot a bit because we didn’t come close to maximizing the points we could have had in the race. We set our expectations to have fun and end this trip on a high note, which we did.”
On the men’s side, Adicoff and Wood raced both the second and final leg of the relay, with Pike leading the team for the first leg and Cnossen racing third. Following a strong opener from Pike, Adicoff and Wood brought the men into second place, though they slipped back in the results over the next two. They finished the race in fifth overall, however, they were issued a 30-second time penalty for one of their exchanges, which bumped them down to sixth.
Jake Adicoff and guide Sam Wood race the long-distance skate, bringing home a bronze medal. (Photo: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
The next races on the Para World Cup calendar begin next weekend, running January 27th – February 1st in Östersund, Sweden. The 2022 Paralympic team will be named following these events on February 1st, leaving the team just over a month to prepare for the Games in Beijing, which kick off on March 4th.
Oksana Masters (left) and Kendall Gretstch (right) go 1-2 in the women’s 15k sitting long distance cross country race. (Photo: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
It’s late January and we’re deep into the race season. As the Olympics and Paralympics draw nearer, we’ve simultaneously just wrapped up the Tour de Ski, the U.S. Cross Country Championships, and another wave of SuperTour races. Never a dull moment in the racing world, the Para World Championships are currently well underway, running January 13-23rd in Lillehammer, Norway.
Normally occurring on odd years, the World Championships were postponed from last February due to the pandemic. Nevertheless, the event was called the Lillehammer 2021 World Para Snow Sports Championships. It was a hallmark event, as it is the first time that all snow sports have competed together in one location over the same dates.
Led by well-decorated veterans like Oksana Masters, Kendall Gretsch, and Dan Cnossen, the U.S. Para Nordic Team has put together a string of outstanding results at World thus far. Events have ranged from biathlon springs to cross country distance races, with athletes competing – and cleaning up – across all disciplines and distances.
Kicking off the series of events, Sun Valley’s Jake Adicoff took home his career first World Championship medal by winning the men’s visually impaired 10-kilometer middle distance race.
“It feels great,” Adicoff said of his performance, according to the Team USA Press Release. “Lillehammer has been skiing really well so far, I’ve been having a lot of fun here. It feels great to go and get that first podium, and hopefully we can go out and get some more here.”
Jake Adicoff and his guide Sam Wood put together a gold medal performance on the opening day of racing at the Para World Championships in Lillehammer, NOR. (Photo: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
Adicoff retired in 2018 after earning a silver medal in the 10k and taking 4th in the sprint, however, he is making his return with a bang in this 2021/22 season.
Building momentum throughout the first day, 19-year-old Sydney Peterson earned a silver medal in the women’s standing middle distance race, with Gretsch earning the second gold medal for team USA in the women’s sitting 7.5k middle distance event. That’s three medals, two gold and one silver, on the first day of racing, along with an additional two athletes, Cnossen and Dani Aravich, earning top-10 finishes.
Dan Cnossen hits the range during the individual sitting biathlon event at the Para World Championships in Lillehammer, NOR. (Photo: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
Joining the team in Lillehammer late after testing positive for COVID-19 on New Year’s Eve, Masters made a smooth return to competition, taking second place in her first race at Worlds, the sitting biathlon sprint on January 15th. The next day, the American women took first and third in the sitting biathlon middle distance race, with Gretsch earning her second gold medal of the week and Masters adding an 18th World Championship medal to her ever-expanding collection.
On point, a perfect shooting performance contributed to Gretsch’s gold, while Masters skied her way out of a significant deficit. Experiencing challenges on the range, Master’s racked up seven penalties, but made up her shooting with her skiing. In the men’s sitting race, Master’s partner, Aaron Pike, skied his way into the Top-10, a rank he has achieved in each of his World Cup races this season, leaving him primed for a medal.
Two days later on the 18th, Masters and Gretch again took the spotlight, going 1-2 in the women’s sitting 15k long distance cross-country race. Now reaching 19 total, this marked Masters’ 10th career World Championship gold medal.
“It’s absolutely incredible,” Masters said in the Team USA press release that day. “It feels like yesterday where I was that new athlete, never thinking that I would be a world championship athlete. So, to have 10 now … is incredible and it’s a testament to our team’s hard work. It’s not just me, it’s the whole team.”
Already an historic day for the U.S., Peterson and Adicoff continued the medal streak in the long-distance cross country races, with each athlete earning a bronze medal in the standing and visually impaired divisions, respectively. Four Americans competed that day, and four medals were won. How’s that for success?
Aaron Pike races the individual sitting middle distance biathlon event at the Para World Championships in Lillehammer, Norway. (Photo: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
As the final days of World Championship racing kicked off, Pike’s consistency paid off with a silver medal in the men’s sitting individual biathlon event. Missing just one target, matching the best result of the event, Pike finished 24 seconds back on the winner, Pavlo Bal of the Ukraine. This result is both a World Championship and overall World Cup career best for Pike, who is an accomplished wheelchair racer during the summer season.
“It was a tough day to be shooting out there, everybody’s missing so I was happy to come away with just missing one shot,” said Pike in today’s recap. “This is probably the windiest race we’ve had in three years. Every chance you get to put a bib on and race in a biathlon race is experience.”
Racing in the women’s sitting individual biathlon, Gretsch and Masters continued to dominate the field, taking first and third, respectively, to keep their medal streak alive and well.
Again performing well on the range, Gretsch missed just one target in four rounds of shooting and skied the second fastest time on course for a finish time of 52:25.0. While Masters skied the fastest time of day, she again faced challenges in her shooting, incurring five penalties, leaving her 3:00.7 behind Gretsch in the final results. In the women’s standing class, Aravich earned another top-10 finish in eighth.
With excellent shooting records, Kendall Gretsch puts together back-to-back gold medal performances in biathlon events. (Photo: Alex Livesey/Getty Images)
After a day of rest, the Para athletes have two final days of racing in Lillehammer on the 22nd and 23rd, which feature a sprint for the standing and visually impaired categories on Saturday and a Mixed Relay on Sunday. Based on the week’s results, it’s clear that they are primed for another medal run in the upcoming 2022 Beijing Paralympic Games, which begin March 4th.
Livestreams of past and upcoming events, along with links to results can be found on the U.S. Paralympics Nordic Facebook page, or you can check out the remainder of snowsport events happening this week in Lillehammer by following along here.
After roughly 26 kilometers of racing, Kendall Gretsch takes Paralympic Gold by just over a meter. (Photo: Screenshot NBC Sports)
If you didn’t catch the ending of the triathlon during the Tokyo Paralympics, prepare for the chills. Spoiler alert: in an all out, last gas effort in the final meters, dual-season athlete Kendall Gretsch edged out Australia’s Lauren Parker by one second for a Gold Medal victory.
This is Gretsch’s third Olympic gold, alongside the two she earned during the 2018 PyeongChang Paralympic Games, first in the 6-kilometer biathlon sitting sprint and again in the 12 k cross-country distance race. Her achievement in Tokyo makes her the fifth American — third female — to win a Gold Medal at both the summer and winter Paralympic Games.
Taking a step back, triathlon was first added to the summer Paralympic schedule in 2016, however, only a subset of the nine competition classification categories were allowed to compete. Gretsch was born with spina bifida, which is the result of a neural tube defect during fetal development, impairing her spine and spinal cord. While she walks with crutches, she competes in the PTWC2 (paratriathlon wheelchair) division, meaning after the swim, she races the bike leg on her handcycle, before transitioning into a racing wheelchair for the run. The Tokyo games were the first opportunity for the two PTWC categories to compete.
FasterSkier spoke with Gretsch in April of 2020 when the news first broke that the Tokyo Olympics were definitely postponed until 2021 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. As we discussed, this leaves just over six months for athletes like Gretsch who compete in both winter and summer sports to prepare for the upcoming Beijing Paralympics, which begin on March 4th, 2022. Following up to learn more about her experience in Tokyo, FasterSkier reconnected with Gretsch on a call to hear how she is mentally and physically recharging before ramping up her training for the winter season.
Paratriathlete Kendall Gretsch made history in Tokyo, becoming one of only five Americans to earn a Paralympic Gold Medal in both winter and summer Games. (Photo: Mark Reis)
First, let’s go beyond the highlight reel to learn more about the Gold Medal day.
Because Gretsch is in the lesser impaired category, she starts at a deficit of four minutes and four seconds behind competitors in the PTWC1 division. The clock starts running at the same time for all athletes, and the first woman across the line is the winner, regardless of starting wave. Among the women in the PTWC1 division was Gretsch’s mark, Parker.
The Australian has a lengthy resume in elite triathlon, including a second place finish in the 2015 Kona World Championships as an able-bodied athlete. After recovering from a serious accident in 2017 that left her with permanent spinal cord damage, Parker began competing in paratriathlon, quickly ascending the ranks and ending the 2019 season with a commanding victory at the ITU World Championships.
While Gretsch is accustomed to the staggered start in her event, she explained that it does change the tactics compared to a mass start competition.
“The goal is to consistently make up ground,” Gretsch explained in a call. “So I wouldn’t say it’s a very tactical race, and that you’re like, waiting to time your move, or finding the right spot on the course to make a move. You’re basically just going all out in trying to [catch the earlier starters] by the end of the race, hoping you can make up that four minutes.”
The PTWC race includes a 750 meter swim, a four-lap 20 km bike, and a four-lap 5 km run, which Gretsch completed in a total time of 1:06:25. She explained that the many laps during the bike and run allowed her coaches to regularly provide her with feedback of where she stood relative to the leaders.
On the hunt, Kendall Grestch chases down a Gold Medal during the run in the 2022 Paralympic triathlon in Tokyo. (Photo: Mark Reis)
Gretsch began making up time right away. She was 35 seconds faster than Parker in the swim, and left the second transition from bike to run just a minute and twenty seconds back. While she acknowledged that the percentage of the race that happens on the bike makes it an opportunity to make a dent in the deficit, she also explained that her progress during that leg surprised her.
“It did play out a little bit differently, in my mind, than I thought it was going to,” she shared. “Usually I can make up a little bit more time on the swim, and then I know that Lauren is a super strong biker. So going into this race beforehand, my goal was to make up some amount of time on the swim and really just not lose time to her on the bike. So yeah, I was really pleased that I was able to make up as much time out on the bike as I did in this race. Especially because she had an amazing swim.”
Sometimes good results come from races where we never feel our best and may feel surprised by the outcome. Likewise, there are the days we dream about where everything is clicking from start to finish and we know from the gun that it will be a good day. For Gretsch, there were elements of both.
“I would say my swim was average. And then as soon as I got onto the bike, I knew that it was a really good day for me and that I was feeling really strong. So I kind of just told myself throughout the race — I knew that [I was giving] everything I had on that day, and could push really hard. And regardless of what happened, I knew it was gonna be a really close race. If I passed her, if I didn’t pass her; I just knew that it was going to be a really exciting race to watch. So that was kind of cool to have that recognition during the race that regardless of what happens, I wasn’t going to have any regrets about the race because I knew I was going as hard as I could, and that it was going to be an exciting race for people to watch.”
While she felt “average” in the swim, Kendall Gretsch had a well-above-average day competing in the triathlon at the 2021 Tokyo Paralympics. (Photo: Mark Reis)
With three golds and a silver from ITU World Championships, five USA Paratriathlon national titles, and a slew of international podiums, Gretsch is no stranger to high level competition. However, the Paralympics is the Paralympics; held as the pinnacle of sport in the United States.
Grestch spoke about her mindset approaching the Games in terms of managing expectations she feels, whether internal or external, and her approach to the mental strain of competing in Tokyo.
“Going to the Paralympics is something that I’ve wanted to do ever since I got involved in triathlon, so finally having the opportunity this year in Tokyo — this race was just so important to me. And I maybe underestimated the mental drain going into the race. It’s such a mental roller coaster where, you know, you feel great some weeks, and you feel bad on some days. And it’s hard, because it just feels like your whole — everything you’ve done for the past five years, even longer than that has just been leading to this one day. So I think for me, it was just such a huge relief that I did have a day where I felt so strong. And again, if it was first or second, I was going to be happy with the outcome either way, because I knew that I had done everything I could in the preparation leading up into the games, and that was everything I had on that day.”
Circling back to the postponement of the Games, Gretsch reflected on whether or not the decision to move the games to 2021 was a benefit or detriment.
“I think the postponement really worked in my favor. I had gotten all new equipment for my bike and the run in October of 2019. So just having that extra year gave me time to work with that equipment and dial that in, and it also gave me the opportunity to take a step back and maybe rethink how I was training. Specifically, I think, the run and bike became two really big focuses for me. And so just having that extra year to be able to change things up, try something new and not have to worry about risking a race season because if something didn’t work, it wasn’t as big of a risk.”
Considering the elongated buildup for Tokyo and the brief window to take a break before preparing for Beijing, Gretsch explained that her mind more so than her body needed to recharge. Our call took place following a short vacation.
“Obviously, you need the physical recharge, and that’s something that I’m familiar with from going between the seasons every single year. But the mental drain of the Games was a lot bigger, I think, than just a regular summer season. So the mental break that I took was so important for me. Now that I’m starting to get back into [ski training] now, I’m just excited about it and ready to go and not, you know, carrying any fatigue this week from that.”
Kendall Gretsch takes aim during the women’s 6-kilometer sitting biathlon at the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games on Saturday in PyeongChang, South Korea. She won the race to become the first American woman to medal in a biathlon event at the Paralympics (or Olympics). (Photo: US Paralympics/Getty)
At the moment, changing gears looks like a steady reintroduction of ski specific elements to her training, including shooting and double poling. Gretsch, who is based at the Olympic and Paralympic training center in Colorado Springs, also attended a 10-day USA Para Nordic training camp in the ski tunnel in Oberhof in late September.
“Since I don’t have access to snow yet [in Colorado], introducing some time on the Ski Erg again, getting range time when I can. So yeah — just trying to get back into the ski motions before leaving full time for the Winter, around the end of October or early November.”
Finally, Gretsch reflected on her experience in the COVID restriction shrouded Games in Tokyo compared to her previous Winter Olympic experiences.
“It’s weird to think about because — if I thought about what the environment was, or if someone told me that this is what it was going to be like four years ago, I think I would have said, ‘Oh, wow! That’s so crazy to imagine.’ But we’ve been living through COVID for 18 months, almost two years now. And so it strangely feels kind of normal.”
FasterSkier will continue to follow the Para Nordic team’s whirlwind build up to the Beijing Games.
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing today announced the five Para Nordic skiers named to the national team and two skiers named to the development team for the 2020-21 season. All seven athletes represented Team USA at the Paralympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018.
“Our program is committed to developing athletes from their first-time experience to the top levels of Nordic skiing and biathlon,” said Eileen Carey, Director of U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing. “Our 2020-2021 National Team is representative of that commitment with a combination of up-and-coming athletes and those who are at the pinnacle of the sport internationally.”
The team is led by Paralympic gold medalists Oksana Masters (Louisville, Kentucky), Kendall Gretsch (Downers Grove, Illinois) and Dan Cnossen (Topeka, Kansas). At the 2019 World Para Nordic Skiing Championships, Masters won five world titles (middle-distance biathlon, middle-distance cross-country, cross-country sprint, biathlon sprint and long-distance cross-country) and garnered six total medals in Prince George, British Columbia.
Gretsch returned home as the 2019 world champion in the women’s sitting class of individual biathlon and additionally secured podium finishes in each of her events, claiming four silvers and one bronze.
Cnossen, a retired Navy SEAL, won a pair of medals at the world championships, racing to silver in the men’s sitting class of the middle-distance cross-country and cross-country sprint races. Pike secured the first world championships medal of his career – the bronze medal in the biathlon sprint – at the 2019 world championships.
Cnossen, Masters and Pike were set to compete at the 2020 World Para Biathlon Championships in Ostersund, Switzerland in March before it’s cancellation due to the on-going COVID pandemic.
The 2021 World Para Nordic Championships are scheduled to be held in Lillehammer, Norway from Feb. 11–20 as part of a historic first joint World Para Snow Sports Championships which will also include alpine skiing and snowboarding championships.
National A Team
Dan Cnossen
Kendall Gretsch
Oksana Masters
National C Team
Aaron Pike
Ruslan Reiter
Development Team
Joy Rondeau
Grace Miller
For more information, please contact Annemarie Blanco, U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing, at annemarie.blanco@usopc.org or 719-646-6921.
Kendall Gretsch (r) and Oksana Masters at the 2018 Paralympics medal ceremony for the women’s sitting 6 k biathlon sprint after winning gold and silver, respectively, on the first day of competition in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: U.S. Paralympics/Joe Kusumoto)
Of the members of the U.S. Para Nordic team, more than half compete at the highest level in both summer and winter sports. Instead of quadrennial, their training is designed for biennial Paralympic cycles, oscillating between sports each year with an overall focus shift toward whichever Games is approaching fastest.
And the goal is not simply to compete in both rounds of the Games, it is to bring home medals.
Oksana Masters is an elite multisport athlete who competes in hand-cycling, para nordic and para biathlon . (Photo: Screenshot teamusa.org)
Illinois based Oksana Masters is a four-time Paralympian with eight medals; she earned two gold, three gold, and two bronze medals in cross country and biathlon, and a bronze medal in rowing — the first American medal in the trunk and arms mixed double scull category. After a back injury in 2014, she switched from rowing to cycling, and went on to qualify for the 2016 Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where she walked away just shy of the medals, finishing 4th and 5th and hungry for more.
Kendall Gretsch is an elite multisport athlete who competes with Team USA Paratriathlon, Para Nordic and Para Biathlon . (Photo: Screenshot teamusa.org)
Her teammate, Kendall Gretsch, took home two gold medals from the 2018 Paralympics in cross country and biathlon and is a three time world champion and five time national champion in paratriathlon, an event that was not part of the Summer Paralympics for her category until the upcoming Games in Tokyo. Gretsch has been living and training at the Olympic Training Center (OTC) in Colorado Springs since March of 2019.
Under normal circumstances, there would be an 18-month gap between the summer Paralympics in Tokyo and the winter Games in Beijing. However, on March 24th it was announced that the Tokyo Games would be pushed back to August of 2021 due to health and safety concerns surrounding the global COVID-19 pandemic. For athletes also competing in Beijing in February 2022, this leaves roughly six months to change gears and prepare to again be at peak fitness, which is no small challenge.
Let’s take a step back. In mid-March when the scope of the pandemic became apparent and Europe and the United States began to rapidly shut down, Masters was in Östersund, Sweden about to compete at the World Championships in biathlon. The team had arrived a few days prior to the start for training, but plans changed at the last minute.
“Instead of waking up to a message from your coach saying, ‘Hey, it’s race day!’ Instead, it was, ‘Bad News: Sweden is cancelling all events that are 500 people or more,’” Masters told FasterSkier in a call.
Oksana Masters focused and in the moment on the range during the 2018 Paralympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: U.S. Paralympics/Joe Kusumoto)
She recalled feeling “shocked” as her season ended so abruptly. Her plan had been to leave halfway through the World Championships in order to head to an essential Tokyo qualifying event for cycling.
Her initial reaction was frustration that she had missed valuable training time for cycling by staying with the nordic team through mid-March, but with the understanding she now has of the scope and severity of the pandemic, her perspective has shifted. That said, she is also fully aware of the challenge she now faces to peak for two separate sports in such a short period of time.
“This is way bigger than sports and the Olympics… [The organizers] made the right call [to postpone] and I’m happy with that, but in my ideal world, I wish that this never happened. I’m sure a lot of people do. Because they postponed to 2021 and my focus is to make it to 2022 as well, it made that transition window from Tokyo to Beijing from over a year to basically six months. My sports are two separate sports — they do not go hand in hand, they are complete opposite motions and I have to basically start over with my fitness, minus the endurance.”
Finding the silver lining, she added that the Olympic postponement does allow her more time to prepare for cycling.
“The good side is that because I was competing full-time on the nordic side and did the World Cup season, I missed a lot of training time on the bike where my competitors were traveling to Spain and all these warm places to get on the road and spend those hours on their bikes. So now this is allowing me to work on my bike that I’m building and at the same time just get more time on the bike and get sport specific strength.”
Kendall Gretsch is a three time World Champion in the women’s PTWC classification. (Photo: International Paralympic Committee)
Because she too needed to qualify for Tokyo, Gretsch had ended her nordic season before the World Championships and was in Florida at the main triathlon qualifier when the country began to shut down. She was slated to compete on back to back weekends, both of which were cancelled the day prior to the first race. It is currently unclear what Gretsch will need to do in order to make the U.S. triathlon team for Tokyo.
“At this point, it’s kind of just waiting to see when we’ll be able to race again. Once that’s solidified more, the international triathlon union will have to come up with new qualification criteria and then, from that, the US will come up with new qualification… I’ll definitely have to compete in a couple more international events to solidify earning a country spot for the US.”
Aside from the uncertainty regarding travel and the seemingly impossible challenge of holding the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics without furthering the spread of the coronavirus, many athletes were also unable to access facilities and resources they depended on to practice skills and adequately prepare for their sport. For Masters, the inability to access a gym impeded her training routine.
“As a Paralympic athlete, in my two sports — especially for skiing — I rely on strength training,” Masters explained. “I lift three times a week. So that took a big toll.”
Her normal spring routine would include baseline metabolic testing and training camps with her coach, who is from Germany. Since he is currently unable to leave the country, Masters is not sure when she will be able to meet with him for these measures to evaluate her training. Overall, she is hitting reset on her plan and embracing the time to change gears at a more manageable pace.
“In my case, we’re kind of starting all over and making sure the base is good in cycling,” she said. “So it’s a lot of endurance riding, a lot of time on the bike, and just adjusting back to it the right way, as opposed to coming off the nordic season, trying to make the qualifiers in June, it was going to be shortcutting all that, which is really hard to do.”
Meanwhile, life at the OTC looks significantly different than Gretsch is accustomed to, with less than twenty people remaining on the campus. Apart from not being able to train in the pool or access the biathlon range, she is no longer able to get massage or other sports medicine treatments that she could previously. She does still have access to the OTC cafeteria, but meals are now take-out, meaning the remaining athletes on campus spend much of their day isolated in their rooms.
Not being able to swim has been the biggest impact on Gretsch’s training, as this would normally be a time of building volume for triathlon. She explained that she spends ten minutes per day on a stretch band swim trainer, but it is far from replicating the stimulus of the pool. She also borrowed some kettlebells and weights from the gym so she can do some strength training from her room.
“I think the good thing is that I’m still able to do two of the three sports in triathlon,” said Gretsch. “So even though I’m not swimming right now, I have been able to bike whether it’s inside on a trainer, or outside when the weather is nice here, and the same in the racing chair.”
Kendall Gretsch racing to her second gold medal of the 2018 Winter Paralympics on Sunday in the women’s 12 k sitting cross-country race in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: US Paralympics/Joe Kusumoto)
Both athletes are feeling uncertainty about what the 2020-2021 nordic season will look like and how cycling or triathlon qualifying events will fit into the mix. Currently, a cross-country World Championship and an Olympic venue test event in Beijing are scheduled for February and March. But, seasons may need to be cut short for Tokyo qualifiers. Both athletes have found solace in the partnership between their two sets of coaches.
“I think the really awesome thing is that both my sets of coaches for nordic and triathlon are really good about being open and communicating with each other about the situation,” said Gretsch. “It’s obviously a really unique situation that no one expected to be in, but in such an uncertain time, I have a lot of confidence about the situation going well just because I know that everyone just wants to work well together and are understanding that both of these sports are a priority to me.”
Interview with Kendall Gretsch following Tokyo 2020 Paralympics postponement.
Masters echoed the sentiment, adding that no one really knows how to handle the situation.
“They’ve been really flexible,” said Masters. “Knowing each of our different circumstances and just waiting to see what the new race schedule is going to be and what the key events and races are for me to go to before they start sending workouts. It’s a little bit playing it by ear and making it up as you go.”
Moving forward, she is staying positive and doing her best to adapt with the changes as they come.
“I try to keep it in perspective. For the most part, everyone is in the same boat… You can lose energy by focusing on all the things you cannot control. It is what it is. For me, I’m just trying to do my part for this whole coronavirus outbreak and just be home, be smart with my training, and just make each day count still and get stronger in some way.”
Interview with Oksana Masters following Tokyo 2020 Paralympics postponement.
American Oksana Masters reacting to her first gold medal in her third Paralympics, after winning the women’s 1.1 k sitting sprint in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: U.S. Paralympics/Joe Kusumoto)
This insight into training para nordic athletes comes from Martin Benes, head coach of U.S. Para Nordic skiing. Benes joined U.S. Para Nordic in August 2018 after spending five years as the nordic ski director and head coach at Sugar Bowl Academy in Norden, CA. Benes responded via. email following a team training camp in Canmore, Alberta.
Martin Benes, head coach of U.S. Para Nordic, shares insight into structuring training for para nordic athletes. (Photo: Screenshot TeamUSA.org)
FasterSkier: Before taking this job, did you have any background in or connections to para sports? What have you learned in your time with U.S. Para Nordic?
Martin Benes: I had not had any background working with para athletes. As a junior I remember para Nordic skier Candace Cable training and racing in the Truckee-Tahoe area. I’d also seen the athletes at events here and there. I’ve been with the program a little over a year and just one full competition season. I feel like I’ve been constantly learning since I took the job, and a lot of that is just learning the individual athletes and how best to support them.
FS: Do you work with and write training for the whole USA para nordic crew or only certain athletes?
MB: I’m currently working with our National Team athletes which consists of four sit-skiers and one standing skier. It’s a little bit of a mix with how specific I’m getting in supporting training plans for those athletes. Educating athletes and supporting them as they make decisions for themselves is definitely the best thing I can do for athletes of this caliber. There’s some great collaboration happening with summer sport coaches for some of our sit-ski athletes and good support from clubs around the country for standing athletes.
FS: What are some of your takeaways in regard to coaching para athletes vs. able bodied? Are there different considerations in training philosophy? Similarities?
American Kendall Gretsch (l) racing in the 4 x 2.5 k mixed relay at the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. Her team finished seventh. (Photo: U.S. Paralympics/Mark Reis)
MB: Fundamentally, there is a lot of overlap from a physiology perspective. With any group of elite-level athletes, in comes down to individualizing their training so they get the most out of each camp or training block. With Para Athletes, that individualization becomes even more paramount. One challenge will always be what works best for each athlete and trying to maximize their training.
In addition, we’re dealing with different types of injuries that can limit how an athlete can prepare for the competition season. So we’ve got to take those into account and first and foremost ensure an athlete stays healthy enough to train to their full potential.
FS: When leading a training session for para athletes with varying abilities and needs, how do you structure workouts to ensure everyone gets what they need from the session? Does the look of this change in summer vs. winter?
USA Para Nordic Gold Medalist Dan Cnossen shows the paddle board he uses to prepare his upper body for sit skiing. (Courtesy Photo)
MB: One of the big things that we do is allow athletes to drive the sessions. We tend to seek out a lot of athlete feedback and learn where they’re trying to improve and try to support that. It leads to a lot of interesting conversations about technique and tactics. When we do group work, which is still important, we try to be very deliberate in structuring it so that all athletes can get something out of it. Those sessions are typically either agility- and skills-based or speed-work.
In the summer our seated athletes tend to do a lot of cross-training and we avoid ski-specific movements to give them an opportunity to mentally and physically reset. They obviously are doing a lot of work with their arms and so anything to change it up is a positive and contributes to their long-term athlete health.
It’s also about learning what their strengths/weaknesses might be and then adjusting training, strength, and technique to maximize their session.
FS: What or who should people keep an eye out for this season? What is the team most excited for?
MB: We’ve got a really strong National Team going into this season, and excited to hopefully have some new athletes qualifying for World Cup racing this season in January and February at our races in Germany. Certainly our returning World Champs medalists Oksana Masters, Kendall Gretsch, Dan Cnossen, and Aaron Pike are all contenders this season and Ruslan Reiter, a standing skier, has made some big gains over the summer. We’ve got a combined race with FIS in Dresden which will be an exciting event for everyone and also Biathlon World Championships in March in Sweden.
The women’s 6-kilometer sitting biathlon podium on Day 1 of the 2018 Paralympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, with Americans Kendall Gretsch (c) in first and Oksana Masters (l) in second, and Lidziya Hrafeyeva of Belarus (r) in third. (Photo: US Paralympics/Mark Reis)
Kendall Gretsch is an elite multisport athlete who competes with Team USA Paratriathlon, Para Nordic and Para Biathlon . (Photo: Screenshot teamusa.org)
27-year-old Kendall Gretsch is a well-decorated athlete. A glance at the Illinois native’s bio shows three consecutive ITU Paratriathlon World Championship titles (2014 – 2016) plus a silver medal at this year’s event on September 1st in Lausanne, Switzerland. She is a five-time USA Paratriathlon national champion, four-time gold medalist at the PATCO/CAMTRI American Championships, and has four medals from ITU Paratriathlon World Cup events, two each of gold and silver. And that is just her triathlon trophy case.
After entering the sport in 2016, Gretsch took off in para nordic sports. She eventually earned two gold medals at the 2018 PyeongChang Paralympic Games, one in the 6-kilometer biathlon sitting sprint and one in the 12 k cross-country distance race. At the 2019 World Championships, Gretsch skied away with a gold medal in the individual biathlon race, four silver medals, and one bronze.
It is uncommon to compete at an elite level in multiple sports. As such, FasterSkier caught up with Gretsch, who was about to head to the first para nordic camp of the year in Sweden, to learn more about how she trains at an elite level for both sports and shifts her focus between the two throughout calendar years and Olympic cycles.
At the outset of the 2019 nordic season, Gretsch made made the move from her former home base in Madison, WI to the Olympic Training Center (OTC) in Colorado Springs. She had been working full-time as an engineer for a software company. Although remaining with the same company, she has cut back her hours and works remotely. Gretsch explained that this has been a positive change for her athletic development.
“Moving out here to the training center has been super beneficial for me. The biggest part is having my team and coach here,” said Gretsch. “We practice everyday with our team in person, which before, at least for triathlon, I had been doing a lot of remote coaching. When I started with nordic, we did a lot of coaching in person and I realized the benefits of training in person with your coach and also training with teammates.”
She added that living at the OTC allows her greater access to resources that support both her sports, like a training room where she can bike and run, a cafeteria, a gym for strength training, massage, and physical therapy. Removing the commute to these resources has also benefited her overall life-balance.
“It makes it really easy to be an athlete and still have time to work or do something outside of athletics.”
The effect of this transition is evident. In 2019, Gretsch won two of the five races she entered, took second in an additional two, and placed fifth at the Tokyo ITU Paratriathlon World Cup in August. Her silver medal at the World Championships was the icing on the cake.
“Everything came together that day. It was the best performance I could have hoped for and obviously, if you come in second or even if you come in first, you’re always thinking of ways you could get faster. But I was happy with that race and it was a good way to end the season.”
Gretsch was born with spina bifida which occurs from a malformation of the spine and spinal column in utero. As a result, her leg muscles did not fully develop but she is able to walk with the use of crutches and leg braces.
Kendall Gretsch is a three time World Champion in the women’s PTWC classification. (Photo: International Paralympic Committee)
Gretsch competes in the paratriathlon wheelchair division (PTWC) which is equivalent to standard triathlon except athletes use a handcycle for the bike and a racing wheelchair for the run. The only difference in the swim for PTWC athletes is that they do not need to abide by temperature regulation cutoff for wetsuits; they can wear wetsuit bottoms regardless of temperature to improve the flotation of their lower limbs.
She explained that there are two subclasses of PTWC: H1 athletes have less core function and begin the race with a handicap of approximately four minutes, and H2’s like Gretsch have to make up the time difference during the race as the first athlete to cross the finish line wins. Gretsch explained that Rio was the first Paralympic Games where triathlon was contested, but not all classifications were selected. Unfortunately, hers fell into the unselected category. This loss of opportunity, however, led her to nordic skiing.
“At that time, the high performance director for triathlon and the high performance director for nordic were in contact and our triathlon director said, ‘Hey, we have these athletes who are endurance athletes and they don’t have a medal anymore in Rio. They might be good candidates to try transferring over to nordic.’”
The para nordic high performance director reached out and connected Gretsch with a development coach who was based nearby in Minneapolis and with the CXC program in Wisconsin that worked with adaptive athletes.
“From there I tried it out as an avenue of, ‘I can’t go to the Games in triathlon anymore, but maybe I can try this other sport.’ I fell in love with both of them and have stuck with both.”
[You can learn more about Gretsch’s transition to nordic sports here.]
Gretsch explained that her training is dichotomous; in the winter, she focuses almost exclusively on cross country and biathlon, though she tries to get into a pool twice a week when she has access.
“Mainly because the previous winter I did nothing swim, bike, or run, and I found that getting back into the pool was the hardest for me. So I tried to keep at least some contact with the pool and swimming and I think that worked out pretty well.”
Similarly, during the summer, she primarily trains for swim, bike, and run, though she sometimes heads into the shooting range when she has time. Gretsch explained that this oscillation in focus has not been detrimental to her performance in either sport.
“Even if I wasn’t doing a summer sport, I think my summer training would probably look pretty similar [to triathlon training]. Even the members of our team that aren’t doing a summer sport, their summer training is usually hand cycling or some other form that is not just nordic skiing.”
She added that most other para nordic athletes are training in a similar manner for dry land.
“From the mental aspect, you don’t feel like you are getting far behind because a lot of the competition even internationally are just doing other training outside of nordic.”
As the winter or summer Olympics approaches, the length of her triathlon and nordic seasons fluctuate to prioritize whichever sport is closer to the Games. The PTWC classification was chosen for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, so Gretsch is currently prioritizing triathlon.
“This coming season, triathlon really is the focus, so if there is a triathlon race that I need to go to to help qualify, I’ll make sure I’m there.”
Like most triathletes, Gretsch logs a multitude of hours swimming, biking, and running during her summer season. She explained that most weeks, she is in the pool Monday to Friday first thing in the morning. After the swim, she has breakfast at the OTC then heads to her room to work. In the afternoon, she heads to either a team workout — biking or running — or strength trains in the gym. Some days she does both.
“Typically in the summer we have 2 to 3 workouts a day and in between, it’s eating meals, trying to get some work in. At the end of the day, I’ll try to go to sports medicine to get either massage or meet with a physical therapist or something.”
On weekends, the team does a longer workout, usually a longer ride or a brick workout to practice the bike to run transition. Most weeks Gretsch trains every day with one of those days being an active recovery day.
In the winter, the hours are fewer.
“Everything is a little bit more condensed because the daylight hours are so much shorter.”
Kendall Gretsch racing to her second gold medal of the 2018 Winter Paralympics on Sunday in the women’s 12 k sitting cross-country race in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: US Paralympics/Joe Kusumoto)
She explained that the team trains from roughly 9 in the morning until lunch time during the week. On snow training requires a drive from Colorado Springs, so this start time allows the team to eat and travel to the training venue.
“It’s a little bit more relaxed in the morning — waking up, getting ready, having breakfast, and then skiing.”
After the session, Gretsch has lunch, followed by a session at either the gym or the shooting range.
Though she is an adaptive athlete, Gretsch explained that her lifestyle outside of training is not different from that of an able-bodied athlete. She explained that she does her best to restrain herself outside of her training to ensure her body is recovered and ready for the next session.
“All my sports activities are just with arms and core and when I’m walking around, it’s a heavier strain on my arms than my legs. So I think you have to be conscious about that. I’d say most athletes are thinking about those same things — just being conscious about how much time I’m going to be out and about doing things that aren’t my sport.”
Gretsch continued that focusing on recovery may be more important when similar muscle groups are used between sports and just walking around. She added that she makes sure she has time off her feet and limits unnecessary walking, particularly on days when she has multiple training sessions.
Like other athletes, Gretsch also has to ensure that she is eating properly throughout the day to sustain her activity. She explained that fueling during workouts is particularly important as the muscles in the upper body fatigue faster than the larger groups in legs.
“From a nutrition aspect, your arm muscles are obviously smaller than your leg muscles would be. I take in a lot more carbs during a session than you might think and that’s just to keep my glycogen levels up. You have a smaller source in your arm muscles than someone would in their legs.
“So keeping [my nutrition] up and preserving myself especially on a day when I have two sessions where, sure I might be able to make it through one session, but really trying to keep my nutrition up and be smart about that so the second session is still a quality session.”
Overall, her areas of focus as an athlete are universal. She expressed that the only aspect that may be specific to para nordic sport might be an increased focus on exercises that support injury prevention.
“There are definitely things that we do from a strength perspective to make sure that we’re maintaining the little stabilizer muscles [in your arms and shoulders]. So before we do a strength session or a hard ski session, making sure we do a good warm up. Just making sure those tiny little muscles that help prevent injury are strong too, not just the big muscles.”
To conclude, Gretsch left other athletes who compete during multiple seasons throughout the year with the advice to truly embrace the time off between seasons to recharge.
Kendall Gretsch takes aim during the women’s 6-kilometer sitting biathlon at the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games on Saturday in PyeongChang, South Korea. She won the race to become the first American woman to medal in a biathlon event at the Paralympics (or Olympics). (Photo: US Paralympics/Getty)
“I think as an athlete you’re so used to training six to seven days a week, you’re just constantly busy. Now I’m in the off season and one of the things that my coaches try to emphasize is that we really have to take advantage of this time between seasons, especially because I’ll have two times within a year that I’m peaking instead of just one.
“So to maintain your mental and physical durability throughout the season, really taking advantage of the off season and having unstructured time to relax and mentally take a step away from everything. I think that is important for anyone in their off season, but I think it becomes more important when you have these two seasons throughout the year instead of just one.”
Kendall Gretsch (r) and Oksana Masters at the 2018 Paralympics medal ceremony for the women’s sitting 6 k biathlon sprint after Gretsch won gold and Masters claimed silver on the first day of competition in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: U.S. Paralympics/Joe Kusumoto)
As a sophomore at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, Kendall Gretsch stumbled across an article that would change her life. It was the spring of 2012, just a few months before the Summer Paralympics in London.
Gretsch had been reading the local news when she came across a story about a St. Louis college student who hoped to attend the London Games as part of the U.S. Paralympics Swimming team.
Born with spina bifida, Gretsch had been a swimmer in high school. After graduating in 2010, she enrolled at Washington University with the intent of studying biomedical engineering and no plans to swim collegiately.
However, within the first few months of her freshman year, she missed the athletic outlet. She began to swim and exercise on her own. By the time she came across the aforementioned article about a year later, she was ready to jump back into the pool, struck by the idea of pursuing the Paralympic dream.
“I was just so oblivious to any sort of para-sport,” Gretsch, 26, reflected on the phone earlier this summer, noting that she had not really thought of the Paralympics as “an option” for continuing her athletic career until reading the piece.
Competing at the Paralympics quickly became her goal, but it wasn’t limited to swimming.
Kendall Gretsch is a three-time world champion in the women’s paratriathlon PT1 classification. (Photo: IPC)
“In high school, I just liked being a part of the team and the social aspect of [swimming], the sport elements of being able to push yourself and set your own individual goals,” said Gretsch, a native of Downers Grove, Illinois.
Following her sophomore year of college, Gretsch returned to Illinois in search of an adaptive sports program to join. What she found was Dare2Tri. Based out of Chicago, the Dare2Tri program offered swim sessions, and Gretsch made it out for the final swim practice of the season. After getting out of the pool, she was approached by one of the instructors. Would she be interested in stepping outside and trying her luck on the track?
“She had me come right out after the swim practice and try racing wheelchair,” Gretsch recalled. “I ended up doing my first triathlon race that summer.”
After graduating in college in 2014, she competed in her first international race and started focusing solely on paratriathlon. At 2014 world championships, she won gold in the PT1 classification and was later awarded 2014 Female Para Triathlete of the Year by USA Triathlon.
In 2015, Gretsch won another World Championship paratriathlon title and was also nominated for an ESPY Best Female Athlete with a Disability award. (She would earn a third World Championship title in 2016.)
World Championships and awards aside, the Paralympics were still on Gretsch’s radar in the spring of 2016. Her chance seemed forthcoming. The 2016 Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, would be the first in history to feature paratriathlon. However, the PT1, Gretsch’s class, was not to be contested for women.
If she wanted to compete at the Paralympics, she would have to wait and see if her classification would be included at the 2020 Summer Paralympic Games in Tokyo or turn her attention elsewhere. But where to go?
During her first year with Dare2Tri, she had heard about adaptive cross-country skiing.
“Someone I had met through triathlon mentioned to me in passing, ‘Hey, there’s this group up in Madison, [Wisconsin], they do adaptive nordic skiing, you should check it out sometime,’” Gretsch explained. “So nordic skiing was in the back of my mind [leading up to Rio].”
She decided to give nordic skiing a go. She moved to Madison and took a technical-support job with an electronic health records company, Epic Systems, while training in an effort to make the 2018 Winter Paralympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.
“Maybe it’s just because I had a background in swimming that I felt like triathlon came a little bit more naturally,” Gretsch said of her transition to nordic. “The hardest part about learning to nordic ski was definitely the maneuvering. In nordic, when you’re in a sit ski, your skis are fixed together, straight. When you’re maneuvering around a corner, you can’t just pick up your foot and step around a corner, like you would if you were standing. So learning how to maneuver was really fun and challenging. We spent a long time on that in practice.”
Kendall Gretsch takes aim during the women’s 6-kilometer sitting biathlon at the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games on Saturday in PyeongChang, South Korea. She won the race to become the first American woman to medal in a biathlon event at the Paralympics (or Olympics). (Photo: US Paralympics/Mark Reis)
Beyond the challenge of learning a new sport, Gretsch also bumped up against a lack of snow during her first season as a cross-country skier.
“I would travel every weekend to find snow,” Gretsch said of her first winter in Wisconsin. “In Madison, there wasn’t really any snow, so during the week I wasn’t really skiing that much at all. I was just sort of skiing during the weekends and then as much as I could during the week.”
Gretsch remained in Madison through the winter and into the summer. A little less than a year out from the 2018 Paralympics, she turned her attention completely to skiing, putting paratriathlon on hold. Four months prior to the Games, she moved Bozeman, Montana, to train with the U.S. Paralympics Nordic team and then-head coach Eileen Carey (Carey recently became the director of U.S. Paralympics Nordic).
By the time the Winter Paralympics rolled around, Gretsch had a full year of nordic training under her belt. Still, what came in South Korea was slightly unexpected.
American Kendall Gretsch (l) racing in the 4 x 2.5 k mixed relay at the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. Her team finished seventh. (Photo: U.S. Paralympics/Mark Reis)
“A lot of times — this probably sounds really terrible — I feel like in triathlon, people are waiting for me to fail,” Gretsch said. “Whereas in a new sport, you have your own personal expectations of how things should go, but no one else really has those expectations for you. You don’t have a target on your back. So there’s a lot of freedom with that.”
With two Paralympic gold medals to her name, Gretsch plans to continue cross-country skiing. She also hopes that her classification will eventually be included in the Summer Paralympics so that she may become a Paralympic triathlete as well.
“I think we’ll know by the end of this year whether or not my classification will be in Tokyo for triathlon,” she said. “So the plan right now is to do both.”
And for someone as strong and talented as Gretsch, more medals from both sports is not out of the question.
“It’s a very humbling experience being able to hear your anthem,” Gretsch said, according to a U.S. Paralympics Nordic press release after her second gold medal in PyeongChang. “Puts everything into perspective. Knowing that you’re here not just here for yourself but for your country.”
Brian McKeever (l) and Oksana Masters (r) are FasterSkier’s 2018 Para-Nordic Skiers of the Year. (Photos: Scott Grant/Canadian Paralympic Committee & Joe Kusumoto/US Paralympics)
With the 2017/2018 season officially in the rearview, FasterSkier is excited to unveil its annual award winners for this past winter. Votes stem from the FS staff, scattered across the U.S., Canada, and Europe, and while not scientific, they are intended to reflect a broader sense of the season in review. This set of honors goes to outstanding Para-Nordic skiers on the international circuit.
American Oksana Masters reacting to her first gold medal in her third Paralympics, after winning the women’s 1.1 k sitting sprint in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: Joe Kusumoto/U.S. Paralympics)
Undefeated in this category for the last four years of the FasterSkier awards, Oksana Masters had her best Paralympics yet this winter and overcame a major setback to do so. Just two weeks before the 2018 Winter Paralympic Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, Masters slipped on ice, injured her elbow and had to get surgery. Then, entirely propelled by her arms as a sit skier, the 28 year old competed in all six individual races in PyeongChang and medaled in five of them (she fell in the other and pulled out of the race shortly before the finish). In total, she racked up the first two Paralympic gold medals of her career (in her third Paralympics) plus two silver medals in biathlon — her first biathlon medals — and a bronze.
“I am absolutely truly speechless on this performance,” Masters told U.S. Paralympics after winning her second gold medal of the week in the women’s 5-kilometer sitting cross-country race (her first came in the cross-country sprint).
“I thrive and love the athlete lifestyle of eat, sleep and train,” she continued. “To put yourself to the ultimate test on that start line and seeing all your hard work come through, and not just that, it’s a whole team effort. … It’s not a one-person show. It definitely takes a village and we have an incredible team.”
Masters and her teammate Dan Cnossen accounted for 11 of Team USA’s 16 medals in nordic and biathlon in PyeongChang, which was more than five times the amount of medals the team brought home after Sochi in 2014.
Overall this season in the World Para Nordic Skiing rankings, Masters ranked first in women’s sitting biathlon and tied Germany’s Andrea Eskau for first in cross-country. In the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) overall World Cup standings, Masters placed third in both cross-country and biathlon.
Brian McKeever, Canadian Para-Nordic Skiing
Also our award winner last year, Brian McKeever became Canada’s most decorated Winter Paralympian of all time this winter with 17 career medals, 13 of which are gold. Three of those golds came in PyeongChang, and he captured bronze there with his teammates on the final day of racing, in the open relay, when Canada placed second in the mixed relay and third in the open relay for its first Paralympic relay medals.
Brian McKeever (r) follows guide Graham Nishikawa during the men’s visually impaired 20 k freestyle at the 2018 Paralympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. Along with guide Russell Kennedy, they won the race by over a minute for McKeever’s 14th Paralympic medal and 11th gold. (Photo: Scott Grant/Canadian Paralympic Committee)
This marked the fifth Paralympics for McKeever, 38, and he was accompanied by two guides, Graham Nishikawa (whom he skied with at the 2014 Sochi Games) and Russell Kennedy (who joined the Canadian Para-Nordic Team this year). Together, they won all three visually impaired cross-country races they competed in: the 20 k freestyle, classic sprint and 10 k classic.
In his first race of the Games, the 20 k distance race, McKeever, who was also Canada’s flag bearer for the PyeongChang Opening Ceremony, captured his 14th career medal — the most of any Canadian Winter Paralympian. In fact, he’s the most successful cross-country skier in Paralympic history, according to an IPC press release.
“I wasn’t aware of this record, but it is pretty cool,” McKeever told Cross Country Canada after the 20 k. “I think for me more than anything is this is a testament to our entire program. We’ve had so many great skiers leading the way for me with my brother, Robin, who is now coaching us, and Colette Bourgonje. Now it is awesome for me to be a part of a new generation that has arrived in Mark [Arendz], Colin Cameron, and the young women like Emily [Young], Brittany [Hudak] and Natalie [Wilkie], who are ready to carry the torch. I’m so excited to be around all of them this week and to be there cheering them on.”
Like the U.S., Canada tallied 16 medals between nordic and biathlon at the PyeongChang Paralympics.
Honorable Mentions: Mark Arendz (Canadian Para-Nordic) and Dan Cnossen & Kendall Gretsch (U.S. Paralympics)
Canada’s Mark Arendez gets a congratulatory hug after he won gold in the men’s 15 k standing individual biathlon race at the 2018 Paralympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: Scott Grant/Canadian Paralympic Committee)
While McKeever carried the Canadian flag at the PyeongChang Opening Ceremony, his teammate Mark Arendz was honored with waving it at the Closing Ceremony. In his third Paralympics, the 28-year-old Arendz had his best Games yet, taking a medal in all six events he competed in to make him the most successful Canadian at a single Winter Paralympics.
Arendz captured five individual medals in the men’s standing races in PyeongChang, including his first-career gold in the 15 k biathlon, silver in the 7.5 k biathlon sprint, and bronze in the 12.5 k biathlon, as well as his first Paralympic cross-country medals: bronze in both the sprint and 10 k classic, and silver in the mixed relay. He sat out the only race he didn’t medal in: the long-distance cross-country race.
“I came in here thinking I could get three medals, but to get six is incredible,” Arendz said on the last day of the Games, after his team placed second in the mixed relay for Canada’s first relay medal. “Today’s is a special one. I am happy we got this done, but there is no way I could do another race. I’m done.”
We mentioned Dan Cnossen earlier, but he’s worth mentioning again. Cnossen, 37, opened his second Paralympics with his first career medal at the Games — gold in the men’s 7.5 k sitting sprint. The next day, he placed second in the 12.5 k biathlon race, and from there, he kept up his medal streak through all six individual races. The total medal haul for the former Navy SEAL and current Harvard graduate student was one gold, four silvers, and one bronze.
Dan Cnossen of the U.S. celebrates his win in the men’s sitting 7.5 k biathlon sprint on opening day of competition at the 2018 Winter Paralympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: Mark Reis/U.S. Paralympics)
It wasn’t an easy feat. Cnossen considered pulling out of the last biathlon race — the 12.5 k — in order to compete in the final 10 k cross-country race in PyeongChang.
“I have an excerpt that says it doesn’t matter how you feel today, it doesn’t matter what your background is or where you’re coming from, all that matters is what you can do,” Cnossen told U.S. Paralympics after finishing second in the biathlon race. “I just tried to focus on what I could do today. Not the fact that I didn’t sleep well last night, that doesn’t matter. Just go out there and perform like I know I can.”
In all, Cnossen raced about 60 k over eight days.
“I came into the Games just trying to take it one race at a time and give it my all — each and every race — and not think too far ahead,” Cnossen said after placing second in the 10 k cross-country race the next day for his sixth-straight medal. “Just focus on the here and now, and soak up the moment and be in the present.”
His teammate Kendall Gretsch, a triathlete who recently took up nordic skiing and biathlon, opened her first Paralympics with gold in the women’s 6 k sitting sprint in PyeongChang. Gretsch, who turned 26 earlier this month, also won the 12 k biathlon race the next day.
In an interview with U.S. Paralympics, she described being “unsure” of how she’d stack up in PyeongChang. Days 1 and 2 of racing pretty much settled it.
“I knew that since our last World Cup I had improved a lot, but you never know until you race,” she said after her second-straight gold. “It’s a very humbling experience being able to hear your anthem, puts everything into perspective. Knowing that you’re here not just here for yourself but for your country, it’s amazing.”
Kendall Gretsch (r) and Oksana Masters at the 2018 Paralympics medal ceremony for the women’s sitting 6 k biathlon sprint after winning gold and silver, respectively, on the first day of competition in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: Joe Kusumoto/U.S. Paralympics)
Two American flags and a Belarusian flag being hoisted to honor the medalists in the men’s sitting cross-country sprint at the 2018 Winter Paralympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. Americans Andy Soule and Dan Cnossen placed first and second, respectively, and Dzmitry Loban of Belarus finished third. (Photo: U.S. Paralympics/Joe Kusumoto)
Success to failure. Failure to success. Two trends of two extremes on the performance metrics on the international cross-country skiing spectrum. There are many in-betweens: scoring World Cup points with a top 30, top 10’s, any spot on the podium. There are the Olympic and Paralympic quads featuring a four-year buildup to North America’s singular focus on bronze, silver and gold hardware.
When considering how to develop talent, placing athletes on snow with the absolute best technology available, positioning athletes to medal, the U.S. Paralympics Nordic Program is an enviable high-performance model. That became evident this winter during the 2018 Paralympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea. U.S. Paralympics Nordic hauled in 16 medals in a week about a month ago.
That many medals for a single team borders on excess. Pursuing the perfection that leads to near-excess has driven the U.S. team staff and athletes for years. Back in 2006 in Torino, Italy, the U.S. Paralympics Nordic team earned three medals. In 2010, in Vancouver, British Columbia, they tallied one medal. In 2014 in Sochi, Russia, they claimed three. This year in PyeongChang: 16.
“I think we have a few factors to our success,” Eileen Carey, head coach of the U.S. Paralympics Nordic team told FasterSkier in a recent phone interview. “We’ve built the entire team — every athlete who has been engaged in the last several years and the staff that we have built are totally committed to the goal of the team. There are not a lot of egos. Everybody has a role. Everybody is really good at what they do, and everybody executes on race day.”
That goal and the team’s execution amounted to 11 medals total between two athletes, both sit-skiers. Thirty-seven-year-old Dan Cnossen entered six races: three cross-country, three biathlon. He medaled in each. Oksana Masters, 28, took five medals: two in biathlon, three in cross-country.
In the leadup to the Games, with buoyant media coverage of para-athletes and opportunities to brand themselves more broadly, the narrative of athletes like Masters and Cnossen were hard to miss. Masters endured a Ukrainian orphanage until she was almost 8. Cnossen is a retired Navy SEAL and a Purple Heart and Bronze Star with Valor recipient. He lost both legs above the knee after stepping on an improvised explosive device (IED) while on patrol in Afghanistan in September 2009.
Biathlon gold medalist Dan Cnossen of the U.S. celebrates his win in the men’s sitting 7.5 k biathlon sprint on opening day of competition at the 2018 Winter Paralympics on March 10 in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: U.S. Paralympics/Mark Reis)
Stories like those of Masters and Cnossen should make us appreciate for a moment our most basic gifts. Their stories are inspiring. That, according to Carey, misses the point when it comes to understanding what exactly manifested in PyeongChang.
“Sure, the Olympic and the Paralympic mission is to inspire people,” Carey said. “But the narrative about Paralympians has historically been far more about inspiration being the central storyline versus Olympians where the essential storyline as about their athletic prowess. The comments that I have heard about these Games are about the athletic performances of the athletes. Whereas in Sochi, and a lot what I have heard before, is a lot about the inspiration.”
Cnossen is a graduate student at Harvard. He receives some support from the school’s cross-country coach, but trains most often north of Cambridge Square at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center in northern Vermont. There, Cnossen benefits from world-class biathlon instruction.
Carey explained that at last season’s 2017 PyeongChang test event, Cnossen performed better in the cross-country races there than in biathlon. As a world-class athlete, traveling several hours for countless four-day Craftsbury weekends and increasing his time spent training on the shooting range were some of the commitments Cnossen made, just like any other hyper-focused, hyper-driven athlete.
Carey also made clear what Craftsbury’s part was in developing Cnossen’s athleticism.
“As a sit skier, you don’t carry a rifle,” she explained. “When you are shooting, that means 100 percent of the time, someone is on the range loading pellets with bare hands when it’s cold outside and handing you your rifle. Dan would shoot three or four times a weekend when he was there, and they supported him 100 percent of that time. He won a medal in every biathlon event. That is Craftsbury’s success as much as anybody else’s.”
Masters’s own drama unfolded two weeks before the Paralympics when she slipped and fell on ice. She dislocated her elbow and chipped all three bones that meet in the elbow. After being operated on at The Steadman Clinic in Vail, Colorado, Masters remained a medal favorite in Korea.
She came to PyeongChang as an all-arounder in both biathlon and sitting cross-country. (Masters, also a multi-sport athlete, competed in rowing at the 2012 London Paralympics — where she earned a bronze medal — and cycling at the 2016 Rio Games.)
Oksana Masters (U.S. Paralympics Nordic) after winning her first-career Paralympic gold medal in the women’s sitting cross-country sprint at the 2018 Winter Paralympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: U.S. Paralympics/Joe Kusumoto)
In her first race in PyeongChang last month, Masters took silver in the biathlon sprint (behind her U.S. teammate Kendall Gretsch in first). Those medals, Gretsch’s first and Masters’s first in biathlon, set the stage for more gritty performances and Masters’s five-medal PyeongChang bounty. Inspiring? Yes. But more to the point, both were athletically dominant.
Masters’s dominance came with a very human off-race. On March 13, during the women’s sitting 10 k biathlon race, Masters fell in her sit ski onto her ailing arm and missed a total of six shots for six penalty laps. While she skied the extra laps, another U.S. coach encouraged Masters to pull herself out of the race. The team’s staff was concerned about her elbow and wanted to ensure her health for her three remaining races.
“I sprinted down the course and just stood in front of her in the middle of the course and pulled her off,” Carey said of how she ultimately persuaded Masters to not finish. “Oksana thought she was done midway through the Games. We X-rayed her again and came up with a plan and taped her elbow in a way that would provide more protection.”
At the 2010 Vancouver Paralympics, Andy Soule earned bronze in biathlon. His medal was the first Paralympic medal in the discipline for the U.S. team. Eight years later in PyeongChang, Soule, a 38-year-old Army veteran, who, like Cnossen, lost both his legs in Afghanistan, delivered the Paralympics equivalent to the “here comes Diggins” moment.
During the men’s sitting cross-country sprint final, Soule came into the last hill in sixth place. He then glided into fourth on final downhill before the last intensive double-poling push to the finish.
With lickety-split skis to match his upper body’s Thor-like power, Soule willed himself into medal contention. From literally out of the camera’s view and into front and center on the final stretch, Soule threw down and accelerated. Bronze, then silver, and at the line, gold came into play. The PyeongChang sprint win was Soule’s first-career Paralympic gold in three Paralympics — he also claimed bronze in the PyeongChang 12.5 k biathlon race. (Soule promptly retired from elite-level competition afterward.)
“Andy has spent a lot of time over the last four years doing a whole lot of stuff, like learning how to move fast on flats, which was something that we had identified from Sochi as being the weak link,” Carey said. “There was something otherworldly about those last 100 meters that was just incredibly cool to watch.”
Cnossen, Masters, and Soule symbolize the U.S. Paralympics Nordic team’s rise. Yet, Carey, along with the team’s high-performance director, John Farra, have been able to build a program that has positioned itself for future medals. Gretsch, 26, may be part of that future. She came to nordic skiing as a world-class para-triathlete and represents what Farra calls “talent transfer”.
“We are super proud with how our sit-ski program has evolved,” Farra said on the phone. “We are super proud that we can take athletes in a talent-transfer situation like Kendall and help her come from being a world champion in triathlon and have her transfer and learn the skills in a short period of time to now being one of the best in the world.”
In PyeongChang, Gretsch captured two golds in the first two races. She won the sitting biathlon sprint and the 12 k sitting cross-country events.
Winter Paralympic rookie Kendall Gretsch racing at the 2018 Paralympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: U.S. Paralympics/Joe Kusumoto)
Farra explained that their medal was the first for the U.S. in a visually impaired race at the “modern” Paralympics. The VI classes were historically split between B1, B2 and B3 classes. (B1 athletes have the least amount of vision.) The different classifications are used as a descriptor of each athlete’s degree of blindness. Formerly, each classification of athlete competed against the same classification athletes. For example, in the past, only B1’s competed against B1’s. Today, that format is defunct, and all classifications currently compete against one another. An athlete’s finishing time is adjusted based on their severity of blindness.
As Farra explained, in the “modern” VI medals are harder to come by.
Adicoff, a student at Bowdoin College and a member of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation (SVSEF), was competing at his second Paralympics. Kesselheim was a Paralympic rookie.
“They are a team,” Carey said of the Adicoff-Kesselheim pairing. “Visually impaired athletes and guides function much more, in my view, like a cycling team as opposed to a traditional ski racer. … The medal was won by both Jake and Sawyer. In that race, they worked together more effectively than I had ever seen them work together. They were more in sync; they were skiing closer to each other. There is a lot of challenges in guiding when it comes to the communication, and Sawyer is a great communicator. He is an amazing skier and athlete, but he is a great communicator and he has no ego. He was totally bought into being on that team.”
Guide Sawyer Kesselheim leads his U.S. teammate Jake Adicoff during the open relay on March 18 at the 2018 Winter Paralympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: U.S. Paralympics/Mark Reis)
The first day of the next Paralympic quad began on March 19, the day after the PyeongChang Paralympic Closing Ceremony. Yet Casey and Farra kept an eye on 2022 by nurturing and investing in more Paralympic rookies by exposing them to their respective sport’s highest level of competition. Grace Miller (standing , Alaska Nordic Racing), Ruslan Reiter (standing, Outdoor Sports Institute), Joy Rondeau (sitting, National Sports Center for the Disabled), and Mia Zutter (visually impaired, CXC/St. Scholastica) participated in their first, yet most likely not their last, Winter Paralympics.
“Having a larger community of people that consider themselves para-nordic skiers is motivating,” Farra said.
In the recent past, Farra explained that identifying and developing standing athletes has been a priority. The U.S. has already been a leader in supporting sitting athletes and providing them with top-end, sit-ski technology.
“We have just scratched the surface of finding a couple of standing and a couple of VI athletes,” Farra continued. “That’s got us pretty excited about the connections they have to their local clubs and colleges, too. We were motivated to bring them to these Games so they could get a taste of what is out there and hopefully, they left absolutely motivated to live a professional athlete lifestyle and train hard with their clubs and their home college programs.”
— Alex Kochon contributed
The 2018 PyeongChang Paralympics men’s sitting cross-country sprint podium at the medal ceremony, with Americans Andy Soule (c) and Dan Cnossen (r) in first and second, respectively, and Dzmitry Loban of Belarus in third. (Photo: U.S. Paralympics/Joe Kusumoto)Kendall Gretsch (r) and Oksana Masters at the 2018 Paralympics medal ceremony for the women’s sitting 6 k biathlon sprint after winning gold and silver, respectively, on the first day of competition in PyeongChang, South Korea. (Photo: U.S. Paralympics/Joe Kusumoto)
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