Perfect Games for Adicoff as Bagiian completes treble in 20km Interval Start Free

The final day of action at the 2026 Paralympic Winter Games witnessed six medal events in the Para Cross-Country 20km Interval Start Free at Val di Fiemme. The athletes had to negotiate seven laps of a circuit just in excess of 2.8km with a slight incline.

Jake Adicoff (USA) made it four Para Cross-Country golds out of four at the 2026 Paralympic Winter Games with victory in the 20km Interval Start Free Vision Impaired.

Adicoff anchored Team USA to a successful title defence in Saturday’s Mixed 4x2.5km Relay after taking the Sprint Classic and 10km Interval Start Classic. And with guide Peter Wolter, he took victory in the long-distance finale. The fatigue showed as the 30-year-old took a second fall on the last lap, but his lead over Oleksandr Kazik (UKR; guide Serhii Kucheriavyi) was sufficient.

Kazik closed to just over seven seconds down at the finish having been close to 30 seconds behind with a lap to go, as he added a Cross-Country silver to his gold and silver in Biathlon. Anthony Chalencon (FRA; Florian Michelon) was almost a minute further back to claim his first Paralympic medal since PyeongChang 2018.

After a nervous wait to see if he had achieved his objective of four golds, Adicoff said, "I feel good. I’m happy that it worked out, I am relieved and feel so much right now. It’s good.

"It’s incredibly scary to put a high goal out to the public. 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."

So what is the now five-time Paralympic gold medalist looking forward to? "A good night of sleep, to relaxing and hanging with teammates and friends, just being part of the crew that’s been around me since day one," he revealed.

"I’m not going home for another three weeks, but my espresso machine, my roommate’s dog, getting back to a little bit of skiing if there’s still snow, I like all of that."

In the Women’s VI, Anastasiia Bagiian (RUS) again dismissed her rivals with ease as she won her third individual gold at her first Paralympic Games. Bagiian and guide Sergei Siniakin were soon in a race of their own, building a lead of a minute on lap two before coming home with an advantage of just under four minutes.

Czech teenager Simona Bubenickova (David Srutek) claimed her third silver of the Games - one coming in Biathlon - with Yue Wang (CHN; Guoming Chen) taking her second bronze in 24 hours after the Mixed Relay. That took Wang’s tally to five medals in Val di Fiemme after she collected two golds and a silver in Biathlon.

“I'm very happy to be here, and it's been a very great result for me,” said Bagiian of her Games. "We are working hard every day and this is a result of our work.”

Peterson caps superb Games as Wang leads China 1-2-3

Adicoff’s Mixed Relay teammate Sydney Peterson won her third gold of the Games in the 20km Interval Start Standing. The 24-year-old was in front at the end of the first lap and kept extending her advantage over the rest of the field. After four laps, she was almost a minute clear with attention turning on the duel for second between Vilde Nilsen (NOR) and Oleksandra Kononova (UKR).

Midway through the last lap, there was Kononova had a marginal lead but then Nilsen finished the stronger to take her second silver of the Games. Bronze for Kononova was her fifth medal of the Games, two in Cross-Country and three in Biathlon including Sprint gold.

"I'm in shock,” exclaimed Peterson afterward. “I mean, I don't know how that happened. I just felt good racing and I just kept going. I knew that this could be one of my favourite races, so I tried to make sure I had a good amount of energy so I could do well for this race. That definitely helped.”

This capped a superb Games for Peterson who credited a new training setup and approach for her performances. "Coming into this season, I tried to make some changes,” she said. “I started training with a new team and new coaches, and I started to just look at things a bit differently.

"I realised that it's really important to have and to look at supportive people back home. And I have a lot of help from the coaches and everyone. Seeing how those things all tie together to make a successful season, that's what I want."

Chenyang Wang won his third Paralympic gold, leading a China podium sweep in the Men's 20km Interval Start Free Standing.

Wang led from start to finish with Taiki Kawayoke (JPN) threatening the Chinese dominance early one. But the defending champion faded badly in the second half of the race and eventually finished in sixth.

Wang added to his middle-distance gold in Beijing and his Open Relay success on Saturday. He won by a minute and 13 seconds from Mixed Relay bronze medallist Lingxin Huang with Xiaobin Lu just over 30 seconds back in third.

Alexandr Gerlits (KAZ) was fourth ahead of Ukraine's overall World Cup winner Serafym Drahum.

Kim and Golubkov take Sitting golds

The Sitting races had the worst of the conditions at the beginning of the day with heavy snowfall greeting the athletes, although that had largely ceased within half an hour of the start of the action.

Yunji Kim (KOR) claimed her first Cross-Country Paralympic title, exactly a week after her Biathlon Individual gold, in the 20km Interval Start Sitting. The 19-year-old took an early lead, but Oksana Masters (USA) moved ahead on the clock by the end of the second lap.

There was little to choose between the pair in the middle of the race, but Kim started to move clear on lap four before fairly powering away on lap five.

Masters ended up in a duel with Anja Wicker for silver. And it was the German who prevailed, winning her first Cross-Country medal in Val di Fiemme, as Masters ended her Games with three golds and a bronze, plus a gold in the Biathlon Sprint.

At the front, Kim took victory by 54 seconds for her second gold in Val di Fiemme. Kendall Gretsch (USA) was fourth for the second Games running ahead with Aline dos Santos Rocha (BRA) repeating her fifth place from the 10km Interval Start. 

"I’m so happy because I didn’t know that I would win gold today,” said Kim. “It was my first 20km race, and I’m so excited. I have trained well. I had a good pace that I maintained throughout the whole race.”

Across Cross-Country and Biathlon, Kim finished her first Paralympics with two gold and three silver medals. “It’s like a dream,” she admitted. “I will not be able to forget these moments.”

Ivan Golubkov (RUS) was in dominant form again as he took his second gold of the Games in the Men’s 20km Interval Start Sitting.

The 30-year-old was ahead on the clock at each time check, winning by over 50 seconds from Zhongwu Mao (CHN) who matched his silver from Beijing 2022. And there was a huge cheer for Giuseppe Romele (ITA) as he crossed the line with the home favourite taking bronze to add to his middle-distance bronze in Beijing.

Pavlo Bal (UKR) was 11 seconds off the podium in fourth with Cristian Westemaier Ribera (BRA) fifth ahead of defending champion Peng Zheng (CHN).

After failing to reach the semi-finals of the Sprint, Golubkov cruised to victory in the 10km Interval Start. He and Bagiian had to race two legs each in the Mixed 4x2.5km Relay, finishing sixth, before his winning finale in Val di Fiemme.

"I had a very good start, high pace from the beginning of the race, and then I kept the same speed going for the whole distance," he said.

"The first race was not good for me, and in the relay we only had two athletes. But in the middle distance and long distance, I did a good job. I will miss Italy. I’ve enjoyed my time here."