EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsComing into the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Paralympics, Team USA is stacked with returning champions -- as well as young athletes making their debut. Here are a few of the most compelling competitors to watch as the Paralympics opening ceremony kicks off on Friday (2 p.m. ET; USA Network).Oksana Masters, Nordic skiing (biathlon, cross-country)Masters, 36, has competed in every Paralympics -- both Winter and Summer -- since 2012, and is America's most decorated Paralympian. Across her sports of skiing, cycling and rowing she has won a whopping 19 Paralympic medals.At the 2022 Beijing Winter Paralympics, Masters dominated the biathlon and cross-country competitions, becoming the first American to win seven medals at a single Paralympics. She revealed on Instagram this week that she has been combating the aftermath of a concussion as well as the same bone infection in her leg that took her out of competition last year. She plans to forge ahead."I don't know what kind of skier I'll be when I line up at the start line. I might not be my best, but I will have the will to not give up, to keep fighting and ... do what I can do. That's what I've been doing my whole life. I'm not going to stop now."Aaron Pike, Nordic skiing (biathlon, cross-country)Pike launched his competitive career in wheelchair racing, in which he has podiumed at the Boston and Chicago Marathons -- including in Chicago in 2021 when he competed in both races back-to-back on consecutive days.Pike, 39, is engaged to Masters, and has also competed in every Paralympics since 2012. He is building up to his strongest winter form yet coming into 2026, taking gold and silver in seated competitions at the 2023 World Para Nordic Skiing Championships, and becoming world champion at last year's Para Biathlon World Championships. He is hungry for his first Paralympic medal in Milan Cortina.Jack Wallace, sled hockeyNo stranger to gold medals (including in the 2018 and 2022 Games as well as in the past four world championships), Wallace, 23, spends his off-the-ice time on the water training to compete in the Summer Games in sprint kayak. A hockey player who dreamed of playing for the NHL since he was a small boy, the New Jersey native lost his right leg in a waterskiing accident at age 10.In 2022, Wallace recorded a first-period hat trick against South Korea, and was named Best Defenseman. He'll lead Team USA as they vie for a fifth consecutive Paralympic sled hockey gold.Meg Gustafson, alpine skiingAmong Milan Cortina's youngest Paralympians, 16-year-old Gustafson has been competing against skiers without impaired vision for much of her racing career. The Minnesota native was born with a condition affecting the ligaments in her eyes, and has said, "I basically only see out of my right eye."Her dad is a former Boston College alpine racer who taught Gustafson and her siblings to ski at a young age. Now racing with her older brother, Spenser, as her guide, Gustafson has set courses ablaze, finishing no lower than fourth in every race she has finished leading up to the Paralympics, including seven consecutive wins in giant slalom, slalom and super G FIS races.Gustafson will be competing in all five disciplines in Cortina: slalom, GS, super G, downhill and combined.Noah Elliott, snowboarding (banked slalom, snowboard cross)Elliott made his Paralympic debut in Pyeongchang 2018, soaring to the banked slalom gold and a bronze in snowboard cross. The Missouri native and Colorado transplant has also achieved the ultimate benchmark in his sport, winning the World Cup banked slalom and overall globes in 2024-25.Four years ago, Elliott struggled through the Beijing Paralympics, competing with a wound infection at the site of his leg amputation. Coming into the 2026 Games, the 28-year-old has already clinched the World Cup banked slalom, snowboard cross and overall globes, and said he is feeling stronger than ever for Milan Cortina.Audrey Crowley, alpine skiingCrowley, 19, once went almost an entire season without finishing a ski race. In 2023, she had managed to make the finish line of only a handful of races all season, psyching herself out and receiving a DNF every competition day. But in March, in a steep, technical super-G race against a stacked field, Crowley soared to victory. And it was the turning point for her. The next year, at age 16, she began competing on the World Cup Para Alpine circuit, where she has consistently notched top-five results in every discipline.Going into her first Paralympics, Crowley cites Mikaela Shiffrin as her ultimate ski hero, and will compete in all five disciplines in Cortina.Zach Miller, snowboarding (banked slalom, snowboard cross)Describing his early youth as "growing up in hospitals," Miller was diagnosed with cerebral palsy at 6 months old. A Denver native, it was through a sports program at Children's Hospital that Miller discovered snowboarding when he was 13. He learned quickly that he loved speed, earning his first world championship medal in snowboard cross in 2019 and following up with medals in banked slalom in 2021, 2023 and 2025.Miller turns 27 during his second Paralympics, where he'll compete in both banked slalom and snowboard cross. He comes into Milan Cortina after landing on every single World Cup podium this season.
