If you watched the 2026 Winter Paralympics at Tesero and saw athletes in sit-skis flying across snow using only their arms, or visually impaired skiers racing tethered to a guide calling the course ahead, you saw para cross-country skiing. It's one of the most physically demanding sports at the Games, and it's more accessible than most families realize.

Here's how the sport works, what happened at Tesero in 2026, and how your child can get started.

How Para Cross-Country Skiing Works

Para cross-country is Nordic skiing rebuilt from the ground up for athletes with physical or visual impairments. The adaptations aren't minor tweaks: sitting athletes replace leg drive with arm power entirely, visually impaired athletes race with a tethered guide calling the course ahead in real time, and standing athletes manage balance and rhythm across uneven terrain with equipment built around their specific impairment. Three classification groups, three race formats, and the same relentless demand for endurance and technique as the able-bodied version of the sport.

The Three Classifications

Sitting (LW10-12): Athletes with lower limb impairments that require a sit-ski compete seated on a low frame strapped to a single ski. They propel themselves using two poles only, with no lower body contribution. You're watching upper body power and core stability drive everything. Spinal cord injuries, bilateral leg amputations, and conditions like spina bifida typically fall into this class.

Standing (LW2-9): Athletes with lower limb or upper limb impairments who can ski upright using standard skis with adaptations. This includes single-leg amputees who ski on one ski and outriggers, athletes with leg length differences, and skiers with cerebral palsy or limb differences. They use either classic technique (diagonal stride) or skate skiing technique depending on the course.

Visually Impaired (B1-B3): Athletes with vision loss from complete blindness (B1) to partial sight (B3). Each skier races with a sighted guide tethered by a short cord. The guide skis directly ahead and verbally calls obstacles, turns, and terrain changes. Guides train year-round with their athletes to develop the call language, and both athlete and guide must cross the finish line for the time to count.

The guide relationship is full athletic partnership. Jake Adicoff (B3 visually impaired) skied with guide Sam Goble for two years before Milan, building the communication pattern that carried them to four golds at Tesero.

The Three Race Formats

Sprint: Short knockout races under 1.5 kilometers. Athletes race in heats (quarterfinals, semifinals, and finals), with the top finishers advancing. It's fast, tactical, and spectator-friendly, with races lasting three to five minutes.

Individual: Mass start distance races ranging from 5km to 20km depending on classification and event. Athletes start together, race the full distance, and cross-country skiing technique (pacing, terrain management, pole rhythm) determines who medals.

Relay: Mixed team relay with four legs, each 2.5 to 5 kilometers. Teams combine classifications: a sitting skier, a standing skier, and two visually impaired skiers might form one relay squad. It's the only team event in para Nordic, and it closes out the competition schedule.

Para biathlon uses the same venue and shares most of the same athletes. Oksana Masters competed in both at Tesero, winning medals in biathlon and cross-country events across the two-week schedule.

What Tesero Looked Like in 2026

Tesero (Val di Fiemme, Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy) hosted all para cross-country and biathlon events at the 2026 Games. Three Team USA athletes swept their classes. One world champion left with nothing.

Jake Adicoff: Four Golds, First Individual Title

Adicoff (B3 visually impaired, guided by Sam Goble) won every race he entered: sprint, 5km, 20km, and relay. Before Milan, he'd won Paralympic relay gold but never an individual title. At 29, he became the first openly gay man to win an individual Winter Paralympic gold medal. He trains in Sun Valley, Idaho, and his four-gold sweep was the defining performance of Team USA's cross-country program.

Sydney Peterson: Three Distance Golds

Peterson (LW4 standing) won sprint silver, then took gold in the 5km, 10km, and 20km for three distance titles in her classification. She'd medaled at PyeongChang 2018 (two silvers) and Beijing 2022 (one bronze), but never gold. At Tesero she swept the distance events.

Oksana Masters: Five Medals Across Two Sports

Masters (LW10-12 sitting) won biathlon gold on Day 1, then added cross-country sprint gold on Day 4 along with additional medals in both sports. She finished the 2026 Games with five total medals. Born in Ukraine and adopted at age seven by a US family, she came to Milan with 19 career Paralympic medals and left with 24. She'd lost the entire 2024-25 season to a bone infection and came back to dominate.

Aaron Pike: Still Waiting

Aaron Pike (B2 visually impaired, guided by Graham Nishikawa) has been to eight Paralympic Games and won world championship gold. He's never medaled at the Paralympics. Tesero didn't change that.

How Families Can Get Into Para Nordic

Para cross-country is one of the most accessible adaptive sports for families with children who have lower limb impairments or visual impairments.

Equipment and Training

Sitting skiers use a sit-ski frame similar to a biathlon sit-ski, mounted on a single wide ski with poles cut to seated height. Standing skiers use standard skis with adaptations depending on their impairment: one-ski setups for amputees, boot modifications for leg length differences. Visually impaired skiers use standard gear plus the guide tether system.

Most para Nordic programs are run by Paralympic sport clubs at ski resorts, and many offer summer roller-ski training on pavement for athletes who don't live near snow year-round.

Where to Start

US Ski and Snowboard runs the Para Nordic program that feeds into the national team pipeline. They connect families to regional adaptive ski clubs and coaches trained in para Nordic technique.

The sport draws athletes with spinal cord injuries, limb differences, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and visual impairments. If your child can use their upper body or can follow verbal cues while skiing, there's a classification pathway.

Getting your child started in adaptive sports follows the same sequence across sports: find a local club, connect with a coach who understands your child's disability, and show up for an intro session. Para Nordic clubs typically offer beginner programs for kids as young as six.

Para Cross-Country in Context

Para cross-country sits in the same space as any elite Nordic sport, asking for endurance, power, and technique, but each classification adds a specific constraint that shapes what the sport looks like. Sitting skiers have no lower body drive. Standing skiers are managing asymmetry at speed. Visually impaired skiers are trusting a voice at 25 kilometers per hour on a twisting, unfamiliar course.

What makes Tesero worth following isn't just the results. It's that the sport is legible to parents in a way that most adaptive sports aren't. The classification system maps to real conditions. The equipment is obtainable. The programs exist at club level in most regions. If a child has a lower limb impairment, a limb difference, or a visual impairment, there's a classification pathway into this sport, and that pathway has taken kids from adaptive ski clubs to Paralympic podiums.

The first step is finding a local para Nordic program through US Ski and Snowboard. The second is showing up for an intro session. What happens after that depends on the kid.