Kendall Gretsch right on target for biathlon sprint pursuit gold at Milano Cortina 2026

PREDAZZO, Italy – Kendall Gretsch (Downers Grove, Illinois) secured the gold medal in the women’s sitting biathlon sprint pursuit, bringing her Milano Cortina 2026 medal count to four after a flawless day of shooting at Tesero Cross-Country Skiing Stadium.

Following clean shooting and a first-place finish in the qualification round, Gretsch continued her perfect performance on the course, shooting clean through two rounds in the finals and finishing the course in a time of 11:33.1. The win marks her first gold medal of Milano Cortina 2026 and the fourth of these Games, bringing her career total to 11.

“This race is really fun to be a part of, a little bit stressful, but I'm just so excited with today's result,” Gretsch said. “It was clean shooting, so that's always a plus. Shooting definitely becomes more of a mental game towards the end of the event when you’re tired from racing a lot. To be honest, it was a bit of a shock. I wasn't 100% sure that I had passed Yunji Kim, so I didn't know until the finishing stretch and then I saw that she wasn't there that I had actually won.”

Addition Team USA finishes in the women’s sitting field, Oksana Masters (Louisville, Kentucky) placed sixth and Erin Martin (Seattle, Washington) finished 11th. In the women’s standing finals,  Sydney Peterson (Lake Elmo, Minnesota) narrowly missed the podium with a fourth-place finish. On the men’s sitting side, Aaron Pike (Park Rapids, Minnesota) and Josh Sweeney (Glendale, Arizona)  finished fifth and sixth, respectively.

Competition resumes on Saturday with the mixed 4x2.5-kilometer relay and the open 4x2.5km relay, followed by the final day of competition on Sunday with the 20km race.

Follow and watch U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing competition from Milano Cortina 2026 on NBCUniversal, which will showcase more than 270 hours of total programming across NBC, Peacock, USA Network, CNBC, and NBC Sports Digital platforms, along with a record number of primetime hours on NBC. Follow U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing on Instagram, Facebook and X for daily updates from Milano Cortina.

For photo and media requests, please contact Olivia Truby at Olivia.Truby@usopc.org.

Team USA Results

Kendall Gretsch, gold, women’s sitting cross-country 10km

Sydney Peterson, fourth, women’s standing cross-country 10km

Aaron Pike, fifth men’s sitting cross-country 10km

Oksana Masters, sixth, women’s sitting cross-country 10km

Josh Sweeney, sixth, men’s sitting cross-country 10km

Erin Martin, 11th, women’s sitting cross-country 10km

Dani Aravich, DNS, women’s standing cross-country 10km

Michael Kneeland, DNF, men’s sitting cross-country 10km