Gay Paralympian Jake Adicoff claims his second individual gold as ‘4 in 4’ quest continues
Jake Adicoff blitzed the field in Wednesday's Winter Paralympics men's 10km event to win his second gold medal in as many days at Milano Cortina 2026. The post Gay Paralympian Jake Adicoff claims his second individual gold as ‘4 in 4’ quest continues appeared first on Outsports.
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Out para cross-country skier Jake Adicoff’s goal of four gold medals in four races at the 2026 Winter Paralympics reached its midpoint Wednesday as the four-time Paralympian dominated the field in the vision impaired classification of the Men’s 10km event.
Adicoff took a bow as he crossed the finish line alongside guide Reid Goble to end a race where he left little doubt as to where he would land on the podium. The Idaho native sprinted out of the gate during the interval start race, blitzing past most of the field that started ahead of him and building a near-one-minute lead a third of the way into his trek.
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That lead stretched to its widest margin, one minute and 52 seconds, around the halfway point of the race. In the end, Adicoff finished one minute and 48 seconds ahead of silver medalist Inkki Inola of Finland, and two minutes and 21 seconds ahead of bronze medalist Zebastian Modin of Sweden.
“We got a split in the last lap that we were a minute or something up,” Adicoff said after the win, in an interview with the FIS. “One of the coaches said, ’Relax,’ and then he also said, ’Rip them to pieces,’ so we were kind of confused.
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“The whole strategy with the race was to try and get a comfortable gap in the first two laps and then stay upright for the last two, and that’s what we did.
“It was definitely hard today. I was tired after yesterday, but I just tried to have some fun and stay in it. Hard conditions, but I’m just so happy to get the win.”
Jake Adicoff says greater focus on data is driving medal quest
Adicoff’s triumph comes one day after he won his first individual Paralympic gold in the Men’s Sprint, the first of his “4 in 4” mission at the Milan Games, becoming the first out gay male athlete to win an individual gold medal in Winter Paralympics history. He previously won silver medals in both the sprint and 10km events in 2022 and 2018, respectively.
The now six-time Paralympic medalist spoke to Outsports about galvanizing his confidence in himself ahead of his quest for four Paralympic golds in Milan.
“I’ve definitely been at a different level since Beijing. Accumulating all of these experiences as a very high-level skier has helped me be more confident,” he said.
“It’s also an amalgamation of all the small things: looking at past seasons, efforts and races and identifying pieces that I can work on.
“That’s what I’ve done in the past four years since China, really taking in information and data from races and acting on it.”
Adicoff now gets a much-deserved break after competing on back-to-back days in the mountains of Tesero Cross Country Stadium.
He will look for his third gold medal of the 2026 Games in Saturday’s 4 X 2.5km Mixed Relay, the sole event in which Adicoff already had a Paralympic gold medal before the Milan Games.
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The post Gay Paralympian Jake Adicoff claims his second individual gold as ‘4 in 4’ quest continues appeared first on Outsports.
