With a second-place finish in the overall medal count, Team USA can take a lot of satisfaction in its performance at the 2026 Winter Paralympics. But beneath that very solid top-line outcome, US athletes turned in a few misses along with the hits. For every aspiration that was met or surpassed, there was another that ended in disappointment.
We’re all about celebrating the highs from Milano Cortina, but an honest accounting also has to acknowledge the lows. The intent isn’t to criticize anyone who fell short of the podium. It’s more about understanding where there’s room for improvement and tracking progress over time. All the “good news” stories below grew out of “bad news” origins. Everyone’s doing their best and working hard to improve—especially with the Winter Paralympics coming to Salt Lake City in 2034.
So here’s our good-news / bad-news review of the Milano-Cortina Games.
GOOD NEWS: Tables turned
With 24 overall medals, Team USA posted its highest total since 2018 and second-highest total of the last 20 years. But the real story lies in the gold-medal column, where the US piled up 13 wins—more than doubling its count from 2022, and tying its best performance in this century (alongside 2018). Better yet, Team USA acquitted itself very well the gold-medal race, finishing only two shy of chart-topping China. To put that in context, American athletes finished 12 golds behind the Chinese just four years ago. This year’s contest was a lot closer.
BAD NEWS: Feast or famine
Team USA’s second-place overall finish was almost entirely the work of one unit: the Nordic Ski Team. Just four athletes—Oksana Masters, Jack Adicoff, Sydney Peterson, and Kendall Gretsch—accounted for 10 golds (77 percent of the US total) and 15 of the overall medals (63 percent). Their dominance in biathlon and cross-country skiing masked an uneven showing in non-Nordic events.
GOOD NEWS: Sledders slay
In clinching their fifth consecutive Paralympic gold medal, the US sled hockey team overwhelmed their opponents by an aggregate score of 46-5. In essence, they made like the Corleones at the end of The Godfather: They assassinated all their enemies without mercy. Team USA has now won 16 consecutive Paralympic games—their last defeat was 2-1 at the hands of Russia (skating on home ice) in the 2014 preliminaries, and they won the rematch a week later to take the gold medal. US skaters haven’t lost at a neutral venue since the 2006 semifinals to Norway. In this century, they’ve won six of seven Paralympic golds, with an aggregate record of 31 wins and 3 losses.
BAD NEWS: Skiers skid
US paraskiers hit rock bottom in 2022, winning just one Paralympic medal and no golds. Team officials chalked it up to injuries and COVID-related disruptions. They expected to fare better in 2026 behind a healthy Andrew Kurka (who raced through injuries in 2022) and a cluster of talented first-time Paralympians. And, technically, they did see improvement, raising their medal count to … two. A bronze and a silver. Including those medals, US paraskiers achieved only seven top-five finishes this year, and they’ve won just one gold since 2010 (by Kurka in 2018).
GOOD NEWS: Old guard romps
Appearing in her eighth Paralympics (and fourth Winter Games), Oksana Masters added five medals and four golds to her gaudy career total. Both figures tied her for first among all 2026 Paralympic competitors. Fellow veterans Jake Adicoff, Kendall Gretsch, and Sydney Peterson notched four medals apiece, and multiple Americans won medals for the third consecutive Winter Games (including Adicoff, Gretsch, Mike Schultz, and Brenna Huckaby). Toss in the seasoned group of players on the sled hockey roster, and Team USA had a banner crop of repeat medalists.
BAD NEWS: Rookies reel
Only two American athletes became first-time Paralympic medalists in individual events—and one of them, skier Patrick Halgren, is 33 years old. The other, 20-year-old snowboarder Kate Delson, is the only rising US star who made the 2026 podium. Several other emerging talents had top-five finishes, including snowboarder Zach Miller and skiers Anna Soens, Audrey Crowley, Saylor O’Brien, and Meg Gustafson. Here’s the problem: Most of this year’s US medal winners will be retired by the time the Games come to Salt Lake City in 2034, and it’s not at all clear who will replace them on the podium.
GOOD NEWS: Curling’s close call
Steve Emt and Laura Dwyer came within a whisker of America’s first-ever medal in wheelchair curling. Competing in the new Paralympic discipline of mixed-doubles, the team had to pull off a major upset just to reach the medal round, knocking off China—who were otherwise undefeated in the tournament—by a single point in the last preliminary match. Things got even hairier in the bronze-medal game against Latvia, where the US took a 9-7 lead into the seventh end, gave up a three-spot to fall behind by one, and then tied it at 10-10 in the final frame to send the match into extras. Latvia won it on the final shot. Despite the disappointing finale, there were enough good moments to give US curling fans some hope.
BAD NEWS: Torched
Milano-Cortina’s Paralympic flame is out, and we have to wait almost 30 months before it fires back up at the LA Summer Games.
