by The Jean Cortina Winter Paralympics began on March 6, 2026 with the opening ceremony at Verona Areena, the third largest Roman amphitheater still existing.
Built in 30 AD to accommodate gladiator fights, it will open the way of medal competition in six sports.
The fence ceremony will then take place at the Cortina Curling stadium.
The United States ranked fourth in the 2022 winter matches with 20 medals (including six gold medals) after dominating the classification of total medals during the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.
Here is an overview of how the United States is preparing in each sport with a year up to games.
Alpine Ski Para
Andrew Kurka, the last American to win the Alpine Para in 2018, finished fourth downhill in 2022 while walking through a broken nose, arm and thumb. He then withdrew from the rest of these Beijing Games.
Kurka, A bed owner and breakfast in Alaska And pilot, then missed the world championships of last month due to the rupture of a few coasts and his sternum in a training accident in Cortina.
“This injury defines me,” He said. “It defines my return. It defines my grain. It defines my perseverance. It will determine how difficult I am.”
On the feminine side, Audrey Crowley emerged, taking giant bronze standing in its beginnings in its beginnings. Crowley, who taught skiing on a 196 -foot Wisconsin hill, was 18 years old last Saturday. The United States has won an Alpine gold medal for the last time in 2010.
Para hockey
The United States won the last four paralympic titles, but last May was defeated by its rival Canada in the world championship final. Before that, the Americans won 41 consecutive games in total from October 2021.
The favorite for Milan Cortina will probably be the winner of this May World Championship in Buffalo. The United States won two victories in Canada last month.
The United States has an experienced list led by Declan Farmer, the top scorer in the history of the national team with more than 200 goals in all competitions since it made its debut in 2012 at the age of 14.
Rico Roman, who is one of the gold medals teams in 2014, 2018 and 2022, retired after the Beijing Games.
Para Biathlon, cross -country skiing
Biathlon and cross-country skiing, the two sports that make up the Paralympic Nordic skiing, produced the most medals for the United States in 2022.
Oksana Masters paved the way with seven medals at Beijing Games, including three gold medals, in the classification in session. She reached 14 winter paralympic medals in a career, Beating the American record of 13 which had been shared by Alpine skiers Sarah Billmeier and Sarah Will.
Masters then went to the Paris Summer Games 2024 and won two gold bicycle medals on the road, just as she did at Tokyo Games.
She now has 19 paralympic medals between winter and summer matches, including nine gold medals.
In Milan Cortina, Masters can become the sixth American to win at least 20 paralympic medals, according to the American Olympic and Paralympic Committee. The list currently includes another double winter and summer athlete Tatyana McFadden, the swimmers Trischa Zorn and Jessica Long, the runner in wheelchair Bart Dodson and Sharon Myers, who participated in archery, swimming, table tennis, a track and a roller armchair basketball.
Kendall Gretsch won a medal of each color in 2022, joining masters each time on the podium. Like Masters, she then participated in the Paris Games, taking money in triathlon.
Gretsch won three gold medals at the World Biathlon world championships last month, which Masters missed due to a leg infection.
On the male side, the United States is expected to be directed by the quadruple cross-country skiing medalist Jake ADIDOFF in the classification against Visually and Aaron Pike, which participated in the last seven Paralympic Games (summer and winter), in the classification in session.
Pike, who is engaged in Masters, is a double world champion in individual biathlon events and is looking for his first paralympic medal.
Para snowboard
The United States has won twice as many snowboarding medals and gold medals as any other nation since sport has made its debut at the 2014 Sochi Games.
Brenna Huckaby is the most decorated snowboarder in paralympic history with three gold medals and four total medals between snowboard events and slalom events.
The American male team could include Noah Elliott and Mike Schultz, already gold medalists in the LL-1 category, and Zach Miller in the LL-2 category. Miller ranked 11th and 15th in his paralympic beginnings in 2022, then won a medal of each color at the 2023 World Championships.
Wheelchair curling
The curling in a wheelchair offers the only new medal event for these matches – a mixed double competition to join the team event which has been taking place since 2006.
In 2022, the United States went 5-5 by turning around the team team, missing the four-team playoffs by an offer in an offer for its first Paralympic Curling Medal.
The United States finished fifth, second and fifth of the three editions of the world championship for mixed doubles, in particular by taking money in 2023.
The paralympic American trials for mixed doubles will take place in collaboration with the Olympic tests for the male and female teams in November in Sioux Falls, in the southern Dakota.
25 Olympic and paralympic sporting events to watch in 2025
In 2025, Olympic and Paralympic sporting events will determine the favorites of the Winter Games in Milan Cortina 2026.
