The U.S. Paralympic Cross Country and Biathlon team in Italy. Athletes are in white and coaches and staff in blue.
courtesy photo
CORTINA, Italy – A week after the 2026 Winter Olympics wrapped up, another round of Olympics started up, the Paralympics. Audrey Mangan and Suzanne Dunklee have both been coaching for the U.S. Paralympic team this past fall and winter as the team prepared for these events. Mangan is one of the junior cross country ski coaches at the Craftsbury Outdoor Center and Dunklee oversees the biathlon program. This past week, Mangan served as wax tech for the cross country and biathlon ski teams, while Dunklee is coaching the biathlon squad. It has been a super successful week for the United States with athletes winning 11 cross country medals and four biathlon medals, including 10 gold medals. Sydney Peterson from Minnesota won three golds and a silver. Peterson has dystonia, a neurological movement disorder. Kendall Gretsch from Illinois took a gold and silver in sit ski biathlon; she has spina bifida a neural tube defect affecting the spinal cord. Jacob Adicoff won four gold medals in the visually impaired cross country races. Adicoff skis with guides Reid Goble and Peter Wolter. Oksana Masters continued her success in both disciplines winning four more gold medals in the sit ski divisions. The 36-year-old Masters now has 24 paralympic medals in skiing, biathlon, rowing and hand cycling. She was born with birth defects three years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and had to have both legs amputated in her early teens. She was adopted by a U.S. citizen when she was seven years old, having grown up in orphanages.
photo by Fred Lee
courtesy photo
Craftsbury Skiers at Under 16 (U16) Northeast Championships and U.S. Junior Nationals
HANOVER, N.H. – Twenty four boys and 24 girls from each of Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine, along with smaller teams from New York and the Midwest convened at the Oak Hill Ski Center this past weekend for four races over three days. Several Craftsbury Ski Club (CSC) athletes found a spot on the Vermont Under 16 (U16) team. After three individual races, Aemelia Terrone finished 12th overall with a 5th place in the sprint as her best race. Lillian Sudday placed 46 overall and Amalie Pratt had 67 in the sprint. On the boys’ side, Oakley Crawford tied for 4th overall with his best race being 5th in the classic distance race. New Hampshire edged out Vermont for the team title.
Out in Cable, Wisc., two CSC skiers qualified for the Northeast Junior National team consisting of about 50 of the top regional skiers in the U16, U18, and U20 divisions. Claire Serrano had her best race in the classic sprint (7th) and classic distance race (14) in the U18 group. Isaac Nadzam had a 16th place in the classic distance race and 30th in the sprint. CSC coach Anna Schultz was part of the wax prep team. Ten regional teams from across the country participated with over 500 skiers.
Bushey and Schwinghamer on the World Cup
OSLO, Norway – Dreams can come true. For Craftsbury Green Racing Project skiers, Byran Bushey (Montpelier, Vt.) and John Schwinghamer (Mora, Minn.) years of roller skiing, lifting weights, skiing, setting goals and skiing some more finally paid off with both obtaining World Cup starts for the U.S. Ski Team for the first time. Both have had several top-five finishes on the SuperTour and at U.S. Nationals this past winter, Bushey in distance races and Schwinghamer in sprint races. This past weekend Schwinghamer placed 41 in the classic sprint on the streets of Drammen, Norway, while Bushey was 59 in the famous Holmenkollen 50 km race. They will be back in action in Craftsbury for the SuperTour Finals and U.S. Distance Nationals March 27-29.
