BY KAREN BOSSICK
Sun Valley’s Jake Adicoff and Peter Wolter are headed to the 2026 Winter Paralympics in Milano Cortina, along with Peter Holmes and Sam Wood.
The U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing Team officially named its 12-member team on Tuesday. They will compete at the Tesero Cross-Country Skiing Stadium in Val di Fiemme, Italy, March 6-15.
The visually-impaired five-time Para World Champion and four-time Paralympic medalist Adicoff, 30, will be competing in his fourth Winter Paralympics. Wolter, who like Adicoff is a member of the Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation Gold Team, will accompany Adicoff as his guide.
Meanwhile, SVSEF’s Gold Team Head Coach Peter Holmes and Sam Wood have been named to the coaching staff for the team. Wood is a SVSEF XC coach, former Gold Team member and guide to Adicoff at the 2022 Beijing Paralympics.
They’ll be coaching a team that includes 19-time paralympic medalist Oksana Masters and seven-time Paralympic medalist Dan Cnossen, as well as two-time Paralympian Dani Aravich of Boise and Josh Sweeney, who has trained extensively in Sun Valley.
The team had a strong 2025-26 World Cup season in which they earned 51 medals, including 24 gold medals.
Adicoff goes into the Paralympics having won the 10-kilometer Classic Distance Race and the 10km Free Distance Race at Finsterau, Germany, Jan. 14-15. He had a third-place finish in the Sprint Final on Jan. 17, before winning the 10km Classic Interval Start and the 10km Classic Mass Start Jan. 31-Feb. 1 at Szklarska Poreba-Jakuszyce, Poland.
Wolter was Adicoff’s guide for four of the five races, with Reid Goble guiding Adicoff in the fifth.
Adicoff and Wolter found success as a team during the 2024-25 season, bringing home the gold in the 20km Interval Free at the 2025 FIS Para Cross Country World championships at Toblach, Italy. They captured silver at the Sprint Final at the 2025 FIS Nordic World Championships in Trondheim, Norway.
They crossed the finish line in Trondheim in front of 30,000 flag-waving fans.
The two grew up together in the Sun Valley ski Education Foundation’s Cross Country Program. Wolter was a high school freshman when Adicoff was a senior. Wolter is also a former All-American at Middlebury College in Vermont and has represented the United States at several World Cup events in the past few years.
“Clearly they have a great thing going!” said Becky Flynn, SVSEF Cross Country Program Director. “Jake opted out of two of the races in Poland due to illness, which seemed to be the right decision—he was in top form for the remaining events in Poland. And now he and Peter are in strong form to keep dialing things in for Milano Cortina.”
The Sun Valley residents will get to walk in the opening Ceremony in Verona, famous for its Romeo and Juliet balcony scene.
Wolter said his teammate is excited to be racing in the iconic Dolomite mountains after having taken part in Paralympics in less skiing-traditional venues in Beijing, China; Pyeongchang, South Korea, and Sochi, Russia. Wolter added that Adicoff’s strong early season results have helped him build the confidence need to “crush” his four races in Italy.
“They most certainly will be the ones to watch and will be the favored in many of the events,” said Flynn. “We are so excited to have Jake and Peter representing the USA, the SVSEF Gold Team and the Sun Valley community.”