The United States para cross-country team had some unfinished business to attend to, and it made sure the entire world knew it with a massive three-medal haul across the sprint divisions on Tuesday.

In the first cross-country contest of the 2026 Milan Cortina Paralympics, Oksana Masters and Jake Adicoff took home gold in the women’s sitting and men’s vision impaired divisions, while Sydney Peterson scored silver in the women’s standing event.

"I feel absolutely on top of the world right now,” Masters said after the race. "I struggle with believing in myself and that was a big thing. The team believed in me, so I wanted to show up for my team."

The top of the world is a well-known spot for Masters: with 21 Paralympic medals, 11 gold medals and 15 Winter Paralympic medals, she already has put together a historic career. At the 2022 Beijing Games, she won seven medals in all seven of her events—and is the only U.S. Paralympian to ever accomplish the feat—but got silver in the cross-country sprint race.

"It was just such a relief and redemption from Beijing. It was the one that got away. I love sprints and I hate sprints because there’s so much stress,” Masters said. "The key is not to carry what happened in the past. Just fight the fight today."

Adicoff felt a similar fire pushing him in the sprint. He has competed in the event at every Paralympics since 2014, finishing in 8th (2014), 4th (2018), and 2nd (2022). With three career silver medals and gold in the 2022 mixed relay under his belt, the sprint title still was on his mind.

"I wanted it pretty bad, you know? A long-standing goal for this individual gold medal (as) I went for it so many times in the past,” Adicoff said after the race. “An accumulation of all the work, that's what's motivating me the most. I love skiing, love ski racing, so it makes finding the motivation kind of easy."

For both athletes, finding redemption was made even sweeter by the fact that they got to celebrate the moment with their friends and family; a comfort they didn’t have in Beijing.

"That's the best part for sure,” Adicoff added. “To have so many people that came out and supported us and are going to continue to support us throughout the week. It's so nice having friends and family (here).”

Rounding out the U.S. cross-country medal count for the day was Peterson, who put on a fantastic performance to grab silver in the standing division. Peterson came away with three medals at her maiden Paralympics in Beijing: gold in the mixed relay, silver in the 15km, and bronze in the sprint. In Tesero, she turned her sprint bronze into silver.

"I’m pretty happy, it was a really fun day, a really fun race and I’m pretty stoked about how the result turned out,” Peterson said. "Every time you go up to the starting line at the Games, it gets harder and there’s more pressure. There are many more hurdles to get through, so I’m pretty stoked about it. I’m very happy with how I skied today."

So far at the Milan Cortina Paralympics, the United States has collected 10 medals. Six of those were won by the para Nordic ski team. Three of those six were won in cross-country on Tuesday morning (and Masters has another gold in biathlon). 

It’s a whole team effort and make no mistake: the U.S. para Nordic team means business. Time will tell just how much hardware they take back home, but they already have made their mark on the Milan Cortina Games. With three medals in one day, the cross-country team will look to Wednesday’s races for the next opportunity.