USA retain Paralympic Mixed Relay crown as China take Open

Jake Adicoff produced a power-packed anchor leg to claim gold for USA in the Mixed 4x2.5km Relay on Saturday. Ukraine took silver with China rounding out the podium at Val di Fiemme.

Joshua Sweeney, Oksana Masters and Sydney Peterson had left the United States in fourth place at the final changeover, 48 seconds behind leaders Ukraine. But then Adicoff and guide Reid Goble got to work, slicing through the field and passing Lyudmila Liashenko for the lead as Team USA retained their title from Beijing 2022. Masters, Peterson and Adicoff were all in the winning quartet from four years ago.

Germany led at the first changeover thanks to Nico Messinger, but Ukraine soon took over in front thanks to Taras Rad after Pavlo Bal had led them off. Oleksandra Kononova stayed in front before Liashenko saw them home to silver.

Bronze went to China’s four of Zhongwu Mao, Peng Zheng, Yue Wang and Lingxin Huang. With only two athletes, individual gold medalists Ivan Golubkov and Anastasiia Bagiian, Russia were in second place at the final change but Bagiian faded at the start of her second lap into sixth place. Germany took fourth ahead of Canada.

In the victorious American team, Masters and Adicoff secured their third Cross-Country titles of these Games, Peterson her second, and Sweeney added a first Cross-Country triumph to the Para Ice Hockey gold he won with Team USA at Sochi 2014.

"It's been 12 years since that happened," said Sweeney. "I definitely have been through a lot of struggles just to get back to the Paralympics and get back to representing Team USA when I didn't think I'd be able to.

"Family, jobs, other things have come up that have sort of taken me out of being able to compete at this level.

"But the last couple of years I really decided that, after not having the Games I wanted in 2022, that I wanted to come out and have a similar experience to 2014, hopefully make this relay team and be able to come away with a gold medal. I'm just glad it all came together."

Sweeney revealed that members of the current USA sled hockey team, who play Canada in the final on Sunday, have been sending him messages of support. "I love being a part of a team," he added. "Playing sled hockey in the past, I feel like the team was the reason I thrived and had so much fun and just loved being a part of a team in the locker room.

"Here we don't have the locker room, but we have each other and the camaraderie that we do have is special and I really did feel that similar connection of I'm not out here for myself, and that's where I thrive."

On the race itself, Sweeney said, "It was awesome. It was a lot of fun. I love mass starts to begin with, I think they are the most fun racing. It legitimately feels like racing."

Adicoff gave thanks to his teammates, saying, "You can't talk about the last leg without talking about the first three. Those were some crazy performances from our team. It made skiing our part of the race a lot easier. It was hard, but it was fun.

"We knew that we were going to be in a bit of a time deficit, but that's how this relay is set up. That's how our team is set up. So it was part of the plan.

"It's still incredibly stressful but stress is reduced by watching some teammates really rip it out there."

China claim first Paralympic Relay title

Shuang Yu and guide Jincai Shang overhauled Germany’s Marco Maier on the final leg to give China victory in the Open 4x2.5km Relay.

Ukraine were narrowly ahead at the first changeover thanks to Dmitry Suiarko and guide Oleksandr Nikonovych, but Germany’s Sebastian Marburger - after a lead-off from Theo Bold, guided by brother Jakob - soon took over in front. Marburger built a lead of over 20 seconds over Norway with China and France just behind and Ukraine down in fifth.

After opening legs from Hesong Dang (guide Hongda Lu) and Tao Wang, China came on strong in the second half of the race. Chenyang Wang closed the gap on Linn Kazmaier to just four seconds when he handed over to Yu who came home just over five seconds in front of Maier.

It was incredibly tight for bronze with Thomas Oxaal (guide Geir Lervik) just holding off Ukraine’s Serafym Drahum by two-tenths of a second. Kjartan Haugen skied the first two legs for Norway with Vilde Nilsen on the third.

For China, Dang and Yu had already won Biathlon golds in Val di Fiemme with the latter taking Sprint Classic silver behind Adicoff on Tuesday. Tao Wang secured his first Paralympic medal, while Chenyang Wang added to his 12.5km Interval Start free title from Beijing.

He will be one of the contenders for gold as Para Cross-Country draws to a close on Sunday with the 20km Interval Start Free.