US Athletes to Watch at the 2026 Winter Paralympics, from a 19‑Time World Champion to “Monster Mike”

Audrey Crowley, Alpine skiing

The newcomer to the Paralympic team celebrated her 19th birthday in early March, yet she has attracted attention for her skiing ability since second grade. She is traveling to Italy after securing podium places in two World Cup downhill events in early February. During the 2024‑25 season she earned two World Cup podiums in giant slalom and captured a bronze in giant slalom and a fifth‑place finish in slalom at the world championships, the remaining three races having been called off. Although born without a lower right arm, she earned an honorable‑mention All‑State selection in Colorado softball.

Jake Adicoff, biathlon/cross‑country skiing

Adicoff completed his studies at Bowdoin in 2018, where he raced with able‑bodied teammates on the cross‑country squad and secured a silver medal at that year’s Paralympics. He retired shortly thereafter. Three years later he returned, competing again in 2022, where he added two more silver medals and contributed a relay gold after moving the team from fourth to first in the final leg. The 2024 World Cup overall champion holds a consistent world‑championship record: nine individual races, nine medals (four gold), including two victories in the previous season.

Oksana Masters, biathlon/cross‑country skiing

A regular competitor in both summer and winter Paralympics for 14 years, Masters aims for her 20th Paralympic medal and a tenth gold. In the summer Games the Ukraine‑born athlete earned four cycling golds and a rowing bronze. Her winter achievements include three golds in cross‑country and two in biathlon. The 2020 Laureus World Sports Award recipient for disability sport missed the 2024‑25 season due to a leg bone infection, but returned to World Cup competition this year, placing no lower than second in any individual cross‑country race and winning five of her last seven biathlon World Cup events. Masters already possesses every type of Paralympic medal, and hopes to add to the collection this season; her fiancé Aaron Pike, also a biathlete, is competing in his eighth Paralympics and seeks his first medal. Pike has claimed a gold medal at each of the past two world championships.

Kendall Gretsch, biathlon/cross‑country skiing

Before 2018 no American had earned a biathlon medal at either the Olympics or the Paralympics. Gretsch and Masters broke that pattern, taking gold and silver in the 6 km biathlon. (Dan Cnossen, also on this year’s Paralympic roster, became the first U.S. male biathlete to medal, also in 2018.) Gretsch added a gold in the 12 km cross‑country event. Two years later she captured another gold at the Summer Paralympics in the triathlon. Returning to snow in 2022, she secured a complete set of biathlon medals—gold, silver and bronze. In the current season she placed second behind Masters in the cross‑country World Cup and fourth in the biathlon World Cup.