Press Release
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing today announced the five Para Nordic skiers named to the national team and two skiers named to the development team for the 2020-21 season. All seven athletes represented Team USA at the Paralympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018.
“Our program is committed to developing athletes from their first-time experience to the top levels of Nordic skiing and biathlon,” said Eileen Carey, Director of U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing. “Our 2020-2021 National Team is representative of that commitment with a combination of up-and-coming athletes and those who are at the pinnacle of the sport internationally.”
The team is led by Paralympic gold medalists Oksana Masters (Louisville, Kentucky), Kendall Gretsch (Downers Grove, Illinois) and Dan Cnossen (Topeka, Kansas). At the 2019 World Para Nordic Skiing Championships, Masters won five world titles (middle-distance biathlon, middle-distance cross-country, cross-country sprint, biathlon sprint and long-distance cross-country) and garnered six total medals in Prince George, British Columbia.
Gretsch returned home as the 2019 world champion in the women’s sitting class of individual biathlon and additionally secured podium finishes in each of her events, claiming four silvers and one bronze.
Cnossen, a retired Navy SEAL, won a pair of medals at the world championships, racing to silver in the men’s sitting class of the middle-distance cross-country and cross-country sprint races. Pike secured the first world championships medal of his career – the bronze medal in the biathlon sprint – at the 2019 world championships.
Cnossen, Masters and Pike were set to compete at the 2020 World Para Biathlon Championships in Ostersund, Switzerland in March before it’s cancellation due to the on-going COVID pandemic.
The 2021 World Para Nordic Championships are scheduled to be held in Lillehammer, Norway from Feb. 11–20 as part of a historic first joint World Para Snow Sports Championships which will also include alpine skiing and snowboarding championships.
National A Team
Dan Cnossen
Kendall Gretsch
Oksana Masters
National C Team
Aaron Pike
Ruslan Reiter
Development Team
Joy Rondeau
Grace Miller
For more information, please contact Annemarie Blanco, U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing, at annemarie.blanco@usopc.org or 719-646-6921.
