Para biathlon started at 4:00 a.m. ET Saturday in Cortina d'Ampezzo, in the Val di Fiemme biathlon stadium most American viewers saw at a much more reasonable hour in NBC's evening highlights. What they found there, whenever they tuned in: Kendall Gretsch defended her Paralympic gold, and Oksana Masters stepped onto a podium in her first race since a bone infection took her entire 2024-25 season.

Team USA opened Day 1 of the 2026 Games with two medals from the morning's first competition.

Gretsch Defended with a Perfect Shooting Day

Gretsch arrived in Cortina as the woman every other athlete on the start list was trying to catch. She swept all three para biathlon sitting events at the 2025 World Championships. Six World Championship golds. The defending Paralympic title. Saturday's result confirmed every bit of it.

What makes para biathlon one of the most compelling events in adaptive winter sports is exactly what makes defending a title here so hard: athletes ski a cross-country course and stop twice to fire at targets 10 meters away with a rifle. One miss adds a 15-meter penalty loop. A single bad shot in the middle of a dominant ski day reshuffles the podium. The margin for error at the front of this field is essentially zero.

Gretsch gave herself nothing to lose on the range. All ten targets connected across both shooting stages, and she crossed the finish 28.4 seconds ahead of Germany's Andrea Eskau for silver. Sixth Paralympic gold. Second in biathlon sprint. She races again in the middle distance on March 10 and the relay on March 12, where the World Championships sweep she pulled off last year is absolutely in range again.

Oksana Masters, Back on the Podium in Her First Race Since 2022

Oksana Masters did not compete at all in 2024-25. A bone infection took her out before the season began, before a World Cup circuit she had spent years at the front of ever got underway. She came back in the fall of 2025, rebuilt her form through the current season's circuit, and arrived in Cortina as a 14-medal Paralympian who hadn't stood at a Games starting line in more than three years.

She finished 1 minute, 14 seconds behind Gretsch and 39 seconds behind Eskau. Bronze. Her 15th Winter Paralympic medal.

That bronze also extended one of the more remarkable streaks in the field. Masters has now medaled at five consecutive Paralympic Winter Games, from Sochi 2014 through Milan. She has seven events left in the 2026 Games, including cross-country skiing starting March 8, where she has historically been at her strongest.

Ice Hockey Opens at 11:05 a.m. ET, Snowboard Cross Qualifying Is Running

The biathlon results are in and Saturday still has a long way to go.

Team USA's para ice hockey program, which has won four consecutive Paralympic gold medals, opens its preliminary round against host nation Italy at 11:05 a.m. ET at the Milano Santagiulia Arena. CNBC is carrying it live. Group-stage play continues with Germany and China before the semifinals on March 13.

Snowboard cross qualifying ran through the morning alongside biathlon. Brenna Huckaby is competing, with results expected before noon ET.

NBC has a primetime show at 8:00 p.m. ET with the full day's highlights. Everything is available on demand on Peacock for anyone who missed the 4:00 a.m. start.

That's what Day 1 of the 2026 Paralympics looks like so far: Gretsch as dominant as every preview suggested she would be, Masters back on a podium after a year away, and Team USA's hockey program taking the ice in a few hours to start its run at a fifth straight gold. A good morning with a full afternoon still in front of it.