Paralympics Quick Hits Day 5: Halfway There!

Written by Lesley Ryder

We’re halfway through the 2026 Paralympic in Milan Cortina! Let’s check in on the highlights from the women on the slopes, and the Nordic course. 

Welcome to the gold medal club

When Yunji Kim won gold in the Women’s Individual Sitting Biathlon, became the first woman to win gold for the Republic of Korea at the Paralympics. “It’s like a dream,” she said in an interview with the Paralympics on social media. In her preparation for the games, she balanced training with her studies. She took pride in her win after training so hard to get to the games. “It gives me a goal and it shows the direction I have to go. It motivates me to move forward.”

On the Alpine slopes, Audrey Pascual Seco has won Spain’s first Paralympic gold medal since 2014. Pascual Seco and her signature hot pink monoski have finished in first place in two of the three Para Alpine events so far. "I've always loved pink. When they asked me if I'd like to paint the chair in some way or personalise it, without a doubt I said fluorescent pink so I'd be seen everywhere" she told Olympics.com. 

After just missing out on gold by .05 seconds in the Downhill race, Pascual Seco won gold in the Super-G by a decisive 6.32 seconds. “I’m super happy. After winning silver and coming so close to gold, I really wanted to redeem myself,” Pascual Seco told Olympics.com after her historic win.. “At the start, I decided to go all in and just see what would happen. I made a few mistakes, but it was enough in the end, so I’m really happy.”

Growing collections

In Tesoro, Oksana Masters has won three gold medals in four events. She’s become the most decorated American Winter Paralympian as her collection grows to 22 medals. After today’s win, she told olympics.com what’s driven her through these games. “The competitor in me wants to keep pushing, [to find out] how many golds can I get from one Games. But at the same time, I am so excited to see the sport growing. I have for sure got a lot of unfinished business from Beijing in all the cross-country [events], which is my speciality. I feel it is my focus to upgrade those silvers to golds."

Natalie Wilkie won Canada’s first gold medal of these Paralympic games in the Women’s Individual Standing Biathlon, and her 10th career medal with bronze in the Standing Cross-Country Sprint. She’s won a medal of every color in back to back Paralympics. After the sprint, Wilkie told the CBC "I was a bit disappointed with today’s result and it was so nice to have my mom in the stands to give me a big hug after the race."

Wilkie could potentially compete in three more events. If she podiums all three events, she could tie the Canadian Paralympic medal record, held by the late Lana Spreeman.

On the slopes, Austria’s Veronika Aigner is picking up where she left off in Beijing. She and her brother, Johannes have won all four of Austria’s gold medals in Milan Cortina. Veronika usually skis with her sister, Elizabeth as her guide, but a torn ACL at February’s World Cup sidelined Elizabeth from the Milan Cortina games. Lilly Sammer stepped in for Elizabeth in the speed events, while Eric Digruber will guide in the slalom events.

After taking her first gold medal of the games, Aigner told Paralympics.com “We hope this is not the only medal, we hope we make more medals. This is the beginning.”

Today’s event: Para Cross Country 10km

The US Women picked up three medals in today’s 10km Para Cross Country event. Oksana Masters won her third gold medal of the games in the sitting race, followed by Kendall Gretsch with bronze, while Sydney Peterson won gold in the standing category. Masters wins alone account for half of Team USA’s gold medal haul so far.

Masters finished her race 23 seconds ahead of Yunji Kim of the Korean Republic, and Kendall Gretsch took third, beating out Germany’s Anja Wicker by 9 seconds.

In the standing race, Sydney Peterson beat Norway’s Vilde Nilsen, who took gold to her silver in yesterday’s sprint. Canada’s Brittany Hudak came third, winning her first medal of the 2026 games. 

Russia’s Anastasiia Bagiian won her second gold medal in the Vision Impaired category, finishing a full 2:38 ahead of Simona Bubenickova of Czechia. Leonie Maria Walter of Germany took bronze.

Sitting 10km

🥇Oksana Masters - USA

🥈Yunji Kim - Republic of Korea

Kendall Gretsch - USA

Standing 10km

🥇Sydney Peterson - USA

🥈Vilde Nilsen - Norway

🥉Brittany Hudak - Canada

Vision Impaired 10km

🥇Anastasiia Bagiian - Russia

🥈Simona Bubenickova - Czechia

🥉Leonie Maria Walter - Germany

Next up

Para Alpine Skiing resumes tomorrow with the Giant Slalom. Veronika Aigner will seek to defend her 2022 gold medal in the Vision Impaired category, while Japan’s Momoka Muraoka aims to repeat her sitting gold. 

The Giant Slalom will air in the US on Peacock starting at 4 AM Eastern time.