STORY BY KAREN BOSSICK

PHOTOS COURTESY OF SAM ADICOFF

Jake Adicoff took a graceful bow as he crossed the line handily after winning gold in the interval start classic at the 2026 Winter Paralympics on Wednesday, despite breaking a pole halfway through the race.

He was tackled as he won his third gold of the 2026 Winter Paralympics Saturday morning at Val di Fiemme.

Reid Goble, Jake Adicoff and Minnesota skier Sydney Peterson show off their relay gold.

Adicoff, who is sight impaired, may not have even seen Oksana Masters coming as she dashed into him on her sit ski meaning to give him a hug but instead knocking him to the ground.

Adicoff had just anchored an exciting finish to the Para cross-country mixed 4xbyx2.5km relay, which involved standing, sitting and vision-impaired Para athletes competing together.

The Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation alum had to make up 48.4 seconds on the last leg to bypass skiers from Ukraine, Russia and China. He sailed across the finish line in 23:24.2—12.5 seconds ahead of the second-place finisher Liudmyla Liashenko of Ukraine.

It was Adicoff’s third gold medal of the Games with one race to go. The Sun Valley skier, who favors distance races, will race in the 20km freestyle race today with Peter Wolter as his guide.

Jake Adicoff poses with Becky Flynn, who heads up the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation’s Nordic program.

On Saturday NBC sports announcer called the U.S. team of Josh Sweeney, Oksana Masters, Sydney Peterson and Jake Adicoff “about as close to a dream team as you can get.”

No wonder—the quartet had combined for 18 career Paralympic Gold Medals

Oksana Masters, the most decorated American Winter Paralympian, who also competes in summer swimming and rowing, had 22 Paralympic Nordic and biathlon medals prior to the relay.

Sydney Peterson had just won gold in the Women’s 10km classic standing and silver in the Women’s sprint standing.

Josh Sweeney, a retired Marine captain who became a bilateral amputee after stepping on an IED in Afghanistan, had just one gold medal—and that was from leading Team USA to gold in sled hockey in the 2014 Paralympics at Sochi, Russia.

But Sweeney took up Nordic skiing after moving to Boise, frequently making the journey to Sun Valley to train at Sun Valley Nordic Center and Lake Creek. He competed at the Paralympics in Beijing and he has raced in the Boulder Mountain Tour.

As for Adicoff? Well, he’s simply the fastest Nordic skier in this year’s Paralympics.

Eleven teams took off in a mass start.

Sweeney took off first for the Americans and was three-tenth of a second ahead of the Ukraine racer as he made way for 12-time gold medalist Oksana Masters. She lost ground racing against men in the second leg of the relay but kept the Americans within the 30 seconds off first they hoped to be to have a chance at winning.

Adicoff had 48.4 seconds to make up as Sydney Peterson finished the third leg five seconds behind the third-place Chinese skier.

He quickly overtook China and Russian skiers on the steep uphill and moved into second behind Ukraine’s Liudmyla Liashenko.

Goble and Adicoff caught Liashenko right as they crested the hill and Adicoff passed Liashenko on the outside, moving in front and turning on the jets as he screamed downhill.

He was well ahead of Liashenko as he crossed the finish line, winning by 12.5 seconds. China held off the Canadians for a bronze.

“I didn’t know that that was first place when I passed (Liashenko),” Adicoff told an NBC sports reporter. “I was still nervous. I had no idea until the finishing straight that we were in first. I was just charging. Didn’t know.”

Adicoff added that there was no opportunity to relax.

“Watching the three amazing races before me…it was still going to be a fight, but we just went for it, winning as a team. I’m in it for the people so it was a fun day.

Sweeney said that he was thinking he just wanted to “beat these guys right out of the gate and really just set the rest of the athletes up for success.”

Masters said that Sweeney set her up well: “I love racing with the men so a good challenge for me to make them hurt and cry.”

“There was something so magical and special to watching Team USA, especially Jake coming in for the finish,” she added. “There’s a reason our spirit animal is the Tasmanian Devil.”

Adicoff, Peterson and Masters were also part of the U.S. team that won the mixed relay in the 2022 Beijing Winter Paralympic Games.

Adicoff won the sprint classic race on Tuesday with fellow Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation Gold Team member Peter Wolter as a guide. He won the interval start classic on Wednesday with Reid Goble as his guide.

He said before the Games that he wanted to bring back four gold medals in a clean sweep. Today he has the opportunity to do that.

LAURIE TAKES HER FINAL RACE

Laurie Stephens, who coaches SVSEF’s U14 alpine team, finished 11th at the Women’s Para Alpine Skiing Slalom sitting on Saturday in what she said would be her last race after a career that spanned six Paralympics beginning with the 2006 Winter Paralympics in Torino, Italy.

Stephens also finished 11th in the Women’s Giant Slalom sitting.  Stephens, who has spina bifida, is considered one of the greatest Paralympians of all times with seven medals, including two golds.

JESSE LEADS AMERICANS IN GIANT SLALOM

Jesse Keefe, who grew up racing with the SVSEF, finished 13th in the Men’s Giant Slalom standing on Saturday ahead of fellow Americans who finished 19th and 28th.

Keefe, 21, finished 20th in the men’s standing downhill on the first day of the Games and 14th in the Super-G. He has one more competition—the slalom—today. He placed ninth in slalom at the 2022 Paralympics in Beijing.