Sydney Peterson dominates at Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Paralympics
March 16, 2026 — Tesero Cross Country Skiing Stadium — Val di Fiemme, Italy
As the Winter Paralympic Games ended at Milano Cortina 2026, I wanted to take a step back and marvel at the outstanding performance from Lake Elmo, MN native Sydney Peterson in her return to Cross Country skiing from Beijing 2022 and her debut in Biathlon. In all she competed in 6 events in Italy.
In those 6 events not only was she competitive, she hit the podium in ALL CROSS COUNTRY events and just finished off the podium in Biathlon with two 4th place finishes that were exceptionally close to hitting the podium there as well.
Sydney’s program for the Winter Paralympics was the following order (note all of her races are in the STANDING classification):
SPRINT - Biathlon
SPRINT Classic - Cross Country
10km - Cross Country
SPRINT Pursuit - Biathlon
MIXED RELAY 4 × 2.5km - Cross Country
20km - Cross Country
MARCH 7 - In the Sprint Biathlon race, Sydney skied exceptionally well but had 3 missed shots. The penalty for each missed shot is that you have to ski a penalty loop after the firing range and then come back out on the course. Should she have had 2 missed shots, she would have finished on the podium. She placed 4th but this set her up for what would be to come for her Cross Country races.
MARCH 10 - After a 3 day break, she was back on the course for her first Cross Country race, also a Sprint discipline and brought home the SILVER MEDAL finishing 4.2 seconds back of Norway’s Vilde Nilsen in the Final (there were preliminary stage races that led to a 6 athlete final) and placing 8.9 seconds ahead of Canada’s Natalie Wilkie. Both of these athletes would be major competition vs Sydney alongside Ukraine and Chinese athletes.
MARCH 11 - The next day, Sydney had the 10km event Cross Country event and after leading almost the entire race, the world feed broadcast thought that she would not be able to hold off the posted time of Vilde Nilsen and as she was a few hundred yards to go proclaimed that she would most likely win silver for the second day in a row, Sydney had other plans and powered in with a 2.7 second GOLD MEDAL VICTORY over the Team Norway athlete and finishing 2:23.7 ahead of bronze winning Canada. This victory was Sydney’s first INDIVIDUAL GOLD MEDAL of her career at the Winter Paralympic Games.
MARCH 13 - Sydney was back to her final Biathlon race, this time the Sprint Pursuit. During most of the race, Sydney led the competition, but on the final set of target shooting, she missed a shot and with the penalty loop that she had to complete, she finished in 4th once again, this time by 6 seconds behind Ukraine.
MARCH 14 - The mixed relay event brings together four athletes two of which are classified as CLASSIC and the next two are FREE, at least one athlete must be of the other gender and the race strategy that goes into it though of order of usage is up to the respective nations. Team USA employed a Male-Female-Female-Male strategy that they also used in Beijing when they won Gold. All of the athletes begin racing at the same time (first leg of relay) and as opposed to a TAG UP you might think about in Track and Field, their is a finish zone and once your athlete completes their leg, then in another lane the next athlete begins the race.
Three members of TEAM USA that had won previously were used in this competition in Milano Cortina 2026, Oksana Masters, Sydney and Jake Adicoff while this time sled hockey champion turned cross country skier Josh Sweeney was the first leg for this race. As the race progressed, the U.S. was sitting in 4th by the time that Jake Adicoff (and his guide Reid Goble) took off 48.4 seconds behind the leader from Ukraine and also behind Russia by 18 seconds and China by 13 seconds to achieve a podium finish. And they DID JUST THAT & TOOK OFF like a rocket ultimately winning the competition over Team Ukraine by 12.5 seconds (silver) and Team China by 32.3 seconds (bronze), to bring home their BACK-TO-BACK MIXED RELAY GOLD MEDAL for Team USA. This would be Sydney’s 3rd medal of the Winter Paralympic Games with one more event to go.
MARCH 15 - On the last day of the Winter Paralympic Games, Sydney had one more chance to reach the podium in what would be the longest race on the docket, the 20km Interval Start Free race (athletes would start staggered based upon their factored disability time), in the field of 17 competitors Sydney started the race next to last so from a timing perspective she began the race 8 minutes behind the first competitor. At the end it is based upon her time, not the athletes who necessarily finish the race first.
This race in the challenging conditions of a race course that was rapidly deteriorating most of the Games with warm temperatures and then the day of competition saw a mixture of flurries and rain kept the Team USA wax technicians on their toes as they had had a masterful performance throughout the entirety of the Games for all Team USA athletes. On this day, Sydney was dialed in and she had a tremendous performance winning her 2nd GOLD MEDAL putting up a time that was 1:17 (factored) ahead of Norway’s Vilde Nilsen who won Silver and Ukraine’s Oleksandra Kononova 1:20.8 who finished with the Bronze.
Sydney would win Team USA’s last women’s gold medal at the Winter Paralympics, her teammate Jake Adicoff completed his sweep of Golds in the race that followed hers and then a few hours later the Men’s Sled Hockey Team would complete the Olympic-Paralympic Hockey sweep of Gold medals for the United States.
A great trip to the mountains above Milan winning 3 GOLD and 1 SILVER and adding to her career total which is now at 7 for Team USA.
Photo Credit: JOY MARSHALL - USOPC
