Team USA competed in the first ever Para biathlon sprint pursuit competition Friday at the Tesero Cross-Country Skiing Stadium, with Kendall Gretsch delivering the top American result by winning gold in the women’s sitting race.

The sprint pursuit format featured qualification races in the morning followed by pursuit-style finals in the afternoon. Start positions and start gaps for the finals were determined from the qualification results, where the first athlete across the finish line claimed victory in a head-to-head style race. Missed shots in the finals required athletes to ski a penalty loop before returning to the course.

Under sunny skies and calm conditions in Tesero, competitors raced three laps and made two visits to the shooting range on a course that climbed steadily out of the stadium before descending back toward the finish.

Women’s Sitting

Gretsch controlled the women’s sitting race from the range to the finish line.

The American qualified fastest in the morning and carried that momentum into the afternoon final. She was efficient through both shooting stages and maintained her pace across the course to secure the gold medal with clean shooting.

“I was a little bit shocked,” Gretsch said after the race. “I didn’t really know until I saw the finish line and saw that I was ahead that I had actually won the race. I thought that I was still in second.”

Gretsch explained that the decisive moment came during the second shooting stage.

“Going into the second shooting I was still behind,” she said. “I saw her [Kim Yunji] leaving the shooting, and so if she had been clean I thought she was way ahead of me. But I think that’s when she had missed, and that’s where I passed her.”

Her clean shooting proved critical late in the race as pressure built on the range.

“This event definitely becomes a mental game with the shooting,” Gretsch said. “Building the pressure and really focusing on your process and not the result.”

Kim Yunji of South Korea finished second while Germany’s Anja Wicker claimed bronze. Teammate Oksana Masters finished sixth in the final after multiple penalties in qualification placed her farther back in the pursuit start order.

Men’s Sitting

Team USA placed two athletes in the men’s sitting final after advancing through the morning qualification race.

Aaron Pike delivered the top American finish, placing fifth in the final after staying in contention through both shooting stages. Joshua Sweeney followed in sixth to round out the U.S. results in the race.

The medals in the race went to Wang Tao of China with the gold, Ukraine’s Taras Rad finishing second for silver and South Korea’s Shin Eui Hyun taking bronze.

Women’s Standing

The United States had two athletes advance to the women’s standing final.

Sydney Peterson remained in contention throughout the race and traded positions with several athletes through the first two laps. She recorded one miss in each shooting stage, forcing two penalty loops that ultimately kept her just outside the medals.

Peterson finished fourth in the final after maintaining pace on the course but losing time through the additional distance on the penalty loops.

Danielle Aravich qualified for the final but did not start the race.

Natalie Wilkie of Canada won the race, followed by Ukraine’s Iryna Bui in second and Oleksandra Kononova of Ukraine in third.

Men’s Standing

The United States did not have an athlete competing in the men’s standing sprint pursuit event.

Cai Jiayun of China won the race, with Ukraine’s Grygorii Vovchynskyi taking silver and Germany’s Marco Maier earning bronze.

Vision Impaired Races

The United States did not have athletes competing in the women’s visually impaired or men’s visually impaired sprint pursuit event.

Austria’s Carina Edlinger won the women’s race ahead of China’s Wang Yue in second and the Czech Republic’s Simona Bubenickova in third.

China’s Yu Shuang took gold in the men’s race, followed by Ukraine’s Oleksandr Kazik in second and teammate Anatolii Kovalevskyi in third.

Up Next

The sprint pursuit marked the final Para biathlon competition of the Milano Cortina Paralympic Games. Nordic action continues over the final two days with cross-country skiing, beginning with the relay events Saturday before the Games conclude Sunday with the 20km race.