If you're watching the 2026 Winter Paralympics with someone who has a disability, at some point you're going to watch an athlete do something that is real in a way that most sports coverage isn't.

That moment is coming, and the U.S. roster this year gives you a lot of reasons to find it.

We [profiled Oksana Masters earlier this week] after her return from a season-ending infection, but she's one of twelve athletes on the U.S. Para Nordic team alone. Here's who else is going to Milan.

Andrew Kurka: Para Alpine Skiing

Kurka was supposed to compete at his first Paralympics in Sochi 2014. He broke his back in a training crash before the Games started. He never made it to the start.

Four years later at PyeongChang, he went down the mountain and won gold in downhill, then silver in super-G. He became one of the most decorated para alpine skiers in U.S. history, with six World Championship medals alongside those Paralympic results.

Then came Beijing 2022. During a practice run, he broke his arm, his thumb, and his nose. Not in a fall. A training crash, again. He competed anyway. He placed fourth.

One spot off the podium, with a broken arm, at his second Games, after missing his first.

He's going to Milan. If you're watching with a young person who is learning to push through something hard, Andrew Kurka is the reason to find the para alpine ski events on Peacock. His story isn't tidy, but he shows up anyway, every time, and that's the whole point.

Kurka races in the sitting category on a monoski. Events begin at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre in Cortina d'Ampezzo.

Noah Elliott: Para Snowboard

Noah Elliott's first Games was PyeongChang 2018, and he didn't arrive quietly. He won gold in banked slalom and bronze in snowboard cross in his debut appearance, a two-medal performance nobody had seen coming from a first-time Paralympian.

Between Beijing and Milan, he underwent a second amputation surgery. Then he trained his way back, competed at Beijing (didn't reach the podium), and kept going. He's now preparing for his third Games.

He's a consistent World Cup presence, he's qualified, and he's heading to the Cortina Para Snowboard Park in March. His gold from PyeongChang makes him one of the few American Paralympians who arrived at these Games already having done what everyone is hoping to do.

Josh Sweeney: Para Biathlon and Cross-Country Skiing

Sweeney won a gold medal in Para ice hockey at Sochi 2014 with the U.S. sled hockey team. Then he did something almost nobody does: he walked away from his sport and started over.

Not a tweak to his training. Not a new event within the same discipline. He left team hockey and began building a career in individual endurance sport from the ground up, training in para biathlon and cross-country skiing. The two disciplines have almost nothing in common beyond the ice.

He didn't just survive the transition. He became competitive enough to win on the FIS Para Nordic World Cup circuit. He's confirmed on the 12-person U.S. team heading to Val di Fiemme.

Sweeney is based in Glendale, Arizona, and competes as a Challenged Athletes Foundation ambassador. The choice he made isn't the kind of thing a resume captures very well.

Dan Cnossen: Para Biathlon and Cross-Country Skiing

In 2009, Cnossen was a Navy SEAL serving in Afghanistan. An IED left him without both legs above the knee.

By Sochi 2014, he was competing at the Paralympics. By PyeongChang and Beijing, he was a Para biathlon world champion and one of the most decorated athletes in U.S. Paralympic Nordic history.

That's five years from the injury to international competition, and a career that followed no one could have anticipated. His events begin at Val di Fiemme in the first week of the Games.

Kendall Gretsch: Para Cross-Country Skiing and Biathlon

Gretsch came from triathlon and Ironman competition in para sport, disciplines that require a different kind of endurance than anything in the Nordic skiing world. She shifted her focus toward para cross-country and biathlon, and has been one of the strongest Americans on the circuit throughout the current quad.

She's confirmed for Milan, and the conditioning base she built in long-course triathlon translates into exactly the kind of sustained output Nordic events demand. Watch for her in the longer-distance events at Val di Fiemme.

The U.S. Para Ice Hockey Team

Para ice hockey brings eight nations together at the Milano Santagiulia Ice Hockey Arena: Italy, Canada, China, Czechia, Germany, Japan, Slovakia, and the United States. The U.S. program has one of the strongest records in the history of the sport.

If you've never watched para ice hockey before, this is a good Games to start. Players sit on sledges with two blades and use spiked sticks to move and handle the puck. The pace and physicality are not what most people expect the first time they see it. Give it five minutes and you'll understand why it sells out every Games.

When to Watch

Para alpine skiing starts in Cortina in the first days of the Games. Biathlon and cross-country events run March 7 through March 15 at Val di Fiemme. Para ice hockey runs throughout the Games in Milan. Para snowboard is concentrated in the second half at Cortina.

NBC and Peacock are carrying over 270 hours of coverage. The U.S. team has the depth and the history to be present throughout, and the individual stories on this roster give you real reasons to care about specific events, not just medal counts.

March 6. Milan. These athletes are ready.