Nilsen, Masters, Liu and Adicoff among Sprint winners as Ribera makes Paralympic history

Having been dominant at World Championships and on the World Cup circuit, Vilde Nilsen (NOR) finally claimed her first Paralympic gold in the Sprint Classic Standing. Nilsen powered away from her rivals with Sydney Peterson (USA) taking silver ahead of Canada’s defending champion Natalie Wilkie who was quickest in qualification.

“It’s an extremely good feeling,” admitted Nilsen. “I’ve had a lot of pressure on my shoulders for the last four years because I really wanted to redeem myself after Beijing and do well here. I was not sure if I was able to win gold after the prologue because there were so many strong athletes, but I really had some good help from my team today with good skis. I’m so happy to finally win gold.

“I really just focused on winning gold today. I think the tactic for the rest of the week is to try to enjoy it more, because today’s been a very nervous day, and try to win as many medals as I can.”

Oksana Masters retained her Sprint Sitting title, passing Yunji Kim (KOR) on the final climb to take victory. That was the American’s second gold in Val di Fiemme after her Para Biathlon Sprint win on Saturday. Shiyu Wang (CHN) took the bronze.

The win took Masters tally across Summer and Winter Paralympics to 11 golds from 21 medals “It feels unreal,” she said. “Little Oksana would never have dreamed that. I’m just shocked and so happy.”

On further medal opportunities in Cross-Country and Biathlon, she added, “I have my expectations for myself but every day is a new day and I know in the morning we race in icy conditions and it favours the lower class athletes, for sure, so it’s going to be a fight especially as there’s a little less technical, so we’ll see. But I’m so excited to just… I think it does give me confidence in my skiing to know I can believe in myself a little bit. It’s there and I just need to put it all together.”

Liu swoops late as Ribera secures Paralympic first

Like Masters, Zixu Liu added Sprint Sitting gold to a Biathlon title earlier in the Games. The Chinese produced a strong finish to pip long-time leader Cristian Westemaier Ribera (BRA) and retain his title from Beijing. Yerbol Khamitov (KAZ) was just three-tenths behind Ribera in third.

Despite losing out on gold, Ribera was able to celebrate becoming the first athlete from South America to win a medal at the Winter Paralympics. “It’s very special," he said. "All of Brazil was watching. I’m very proud of my team. My brother is my coach, my sister was an Olympian two weeks ago. It was the first race and I was a little nervous in the qualies but, after I was first, I did my routine and it was all good.”

Jake Adicoff (guide Peter Wolter) made it two golds for Team USA on the day in the Men’s Vision Impaired, going one better than at Beijing 2022. The 30-year-old held off Shuang Yu (CHN) at the finish to claim his first individual Paralympic gold, with Zebastian Modin (SWE) in third.

"I felt good today and I'd hoped for a little more in the final but they were very strong," said Modin. "I did my best but I had no chance as they were just better, Jake and Yu. For the rest of the week, I'll just try right now to sort through all my emotions and get some energy in. And then I’ll start thinking about tomorrow and also Sunday. But I’m happy because the goal was to take a medal and we did so."

Anastasiia Bagiian (RUS) produced arguably the performance of the day in the Women's VI category, taking victory in emphatic style.

With guide Sergei Siniakin, the 24-year-old secured a first global title on her Paralympic debut as she surged clear of her rivals. The pair were able to coast across the line in glorious isolation with Linn Kazmeier (GER; Florian Baumann) almost 10 seconds behind. Jihong Cong (CHN; Jiaxuan Liu) took the bronze.

Despite being a long way behind the winner, Kazmaier said, “I’m so so happy. It was a really nice race today and so fun skiing. I just want to show how nice skiing is and have fun.”

Raman Svirydzenka (BLR) also made a winning Paralympic debut in the Men's Standing event. He had Sebastian Marburger in hot pursuit late on, but held off the German to take gold with Benjamin Daviet (FRA) rounding out the podium.

The athletes are back in action quickly on Wednesday for the 10km Interval Start Classic.