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BY KAREN BOSSICK PHOTOS COURTESY OF ZENO Nine hundred hours of roller skiing and pumping iron last summer and solitary long-distance laps on what little snow the West had this winter paid off for Sun Valley’s Jake Adicoff in the mountains of Italy Sunday. Adicoff won gold in the 20km vision impaired interval start freestyle competition at the 2026 Milan Cortina Paralympics with Sun Valley’s Peter Wolter guiding him around the track.
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Jake Adicoff and Peter Wolter skied hard and fast up hills, usually putting time between themselves and their competitors.
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Adicoff has said repeatedly he was mining for gold and he struck it rich, winning four gold medals in all four of his competitions. "I'm so excited. I'm so happy and also relieved. It was a lofty goal and it's been a long week fighting for it,” Adicoff told an NBC Sports reporter. Wolter was no less effusive. "If I'm being completely honest, Jake is an incredible skier and sometimes I think there is an opportunity for him to do this without me. But working together today was a day where teamwork was going to make the dream work. I'm lucky to get to ski out there and grind just as hard as Jake is."
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The downhills offered a chance to catch their breath.
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It took seven laps around a 2.8km circuit for Adicoff to claim his fourth and final prize and it came a day after he anchored Team USA to its second consecutive gold in the Mixed 4x2.5km relay. But this race, conducted as snow fell for the first time during the Paralympics, may have been his most difficult, particularly since he didn’t feel as strong as he’d been during earlier races. Skiing in flat light and weary after a week of racing, he fell twice. The first—the first fall he’s had all season--took place a couple laps into the race when his ski pole hit his binding and he fell on his knees heading uphill. He fell again on the last lap. But he had just enough cushion over Oleksandr Kazik of Ukraine in what proved to be a nail-biting finish.
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Jake Adicoff lets out a massive cry of relief after accomplishing the goal he made four years ago of winning four golds at the 2026 Winter Paralympics.
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Adicoff and Wolter held their breath to see if Kazik would overtake them in the race, in which skiers went out individually rather than enmasse. Kazik had been 30 seconds behind Adicoff heading into the final lap, but he had a blistering last run, closing the gap to seven seconds, in part because of Adicoff’s fall. France’s Anthony Chalencon took bronze. “Skiing tired is what we do all the time. It’ll get you sometimes, but we recover,” said Wolter. “We got a little nervous at the end for sure.” Adicoff, who set a goal of four golds four years ago, acknowledged that it was incredibly scary to tell the world he had come to Italy for four golds.
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Jake Adicoff and Peter Wolter got to do a lot of flag waving during the week of the Paralympics.
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“I was doubting it so much this week. I didn’t know what was going to happen, but the races came together and I’m just overjoyed,” he said. Adicoff said he was ready to hear the National Anthem one more time. “Then I’m ready for a good night’s sleep.” Sydney Peterson, one of Adicoff’s teammates in Saturday’s relay, also took gold in her women’s standing event, giving her three gold and one silver over six events.
As for Adicoff, he now has five golds and three silvers from the 2018 PyeongChang, 2022 Beijing and 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics. He was 17 when he competed in his first Paralympics in Sochi, Russia. JESSE KEEFE TOPS AMERICAN MEN IN SLALOM Jesse Keefe, a Sun Valley Ski Education Foundation alum, finished 13th in the slalom on Sunday—the best showing of five American men. Keefe struggled in his first run on a foggy day that saw a foot of snow fall. But he had a good second run to move up to 13th.
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