Reid Goble, Peter Wolters, and Jake Adicoff team up for the 2026 Paralympic Winter Games
Goble/Adicoff Story
I enjoyed interviewing World Cup skier Reid Goble and three-time Paralympian Jake Adicoff about their recent races at the 2025 FIS Para Cross-country World Championships in Toblach, Italy. I hope their stories excite Endurance Adventure’s readers to watch next year’s 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Paralympics!
Reid was asked to guide Jake Adicoff this past March at the 2025 World Cup Para Nordic Championships in Toblach, Italy. Reid guided one of the distance races and the relay event, while Peter Wolter guided the other distance race and the sprint. Jake won both distance races and placed second in the sprint and relay events.
Reid Gobles’ Nordic World Cup Racing Experience
Reid grew up in Lower Michigan and raced for the Michigan Tech Nordic Ski Team, where he competed at the NCAA Championships for three years. Following college, he joined the Bridger Ski Foundation Pro Team. While on the team, his main goal was to compete in a cross-country World Cup event. In February 2024, he qualified to compete in the Canmore and Minneapolis Loppet World Cup races.
Reid shared, “I will always remember the feeling of racing in Minneapolis with thousands of fans lining the course. It was an electric atmosphere, fulfilling a lifelong dream of competing in a World Cup on U.S. soil.”
Reid has enjoyed training and racing with his BSF teammates over the last four years and celebrates almost every weekend when someone from his team lands on the podium. Recently, at the 2025 U.S. National Nordic Super Tour Spring Finals in Lake Placid, the BSF team won the 4 X 5 km relay.”
Jake Adicoff’s Paralympic Success Story
Jake Adicoff is a three-time Paralympian and a four-time Paralympic medalist (1 gold, 3 silver). Jake moved to Sun Valley, Idaho, when he was five. His parents introduced Jake and his other siblings to Alpine and Nordic skiing at a young age. Jake enjoyed the friendships he made on the Nordic Sun Valley Ski Club and, as a tenth grader, made the Junior National team.
Adicoff has spent most of his competitive career racing in an able-bodied field, having competed in two junior national championships in 2011 and 2013. It wasn’t until he made the 2013-14 U.S. Paralympics Nordic Skiing National Team that he shifted his focus to Sochi and the Paralympic Winter Games.
Through the encouragement of Sun Valley Ski Team coaches, he attended his first para ski camp in high school and qualified to race in a Paralympic World Cup race. He soon qualified for the 2014 Paralympic Games in Sochi, Russia.
Jake shared, “ One of the highlights from the Sochi Games was watching seven-time Paralympian Oksana Master win her first medal. This was my first international ski trip, and it was crazy to experience an event where the host country spent nearly 51 billion dollars hosting the Olympic Games.
Following the Sochi Paralympics, Jake put paraskiing on the back burner and attended Bowdoin College, where he spent the next four years competing on the Nordic ski team.
Following the games, Jake graduated from college with a double major in Math and computer science. “I decided to retire from skiing and got a job in San Francisco. I ended up coming home during COVID for socialization purposes. I started attending ski training sessions, leading to ski racing again. I went to a para ski camp the winter of 2021 and decided I wanted to keep racing and training full time,” shared Jake.
Jake qualified for the 2018 PyeongChang Paralympic Games during his fourth year in college. Jake received his first silver medal in the 10 km classic race at the Paralympic Pyeongchang Games. At the 2022 Paralympic Beijing Games, Jake earned his first Gold medal in the mixed relay event, two silver medals in the 1 km sprint freestyle race, and the 20 km classic visually impaired men’s event. Jake shared, “The China games were pretty brutal with all the restrictions and testing during the COVID pandemic.”
Skiing in Tandem: Adicoff/Goble/Wolters Team
Reid first met 3-time Paralympian Jake Adicoff in high school while ski training in Sun Valley. Jake trains with the Nordic Gold Team in Idaho. Reid became good friends with Jake while training in Sun Valley over several summers and was asked to guide Jake in the 2024 World Cup Finals in Prince George’s, BC, last March. This past March, Reid recently guided Jake in three World Cup Final races in Toblach, Italy. Peter Wolters, a longtime friend and teammate on the Sun Valley Ski Team, has been Jake’s main ski guide for many of the 2024/25 World Cup race events. Jake won two World Cup Championship individual races and placed second in the team relay.
Para Cross-Country Skiing Categories
“There are three categories in Para Cross-Country Skiing: sitting, standing, and Visually Impaired (VI). For example, sit skiers race other sit skiers, standing skiers versus standing skiers, and VI skiers versus VI Skiers. Within these categories, athletes are classified according to their disability. These classifications create a level racing field, making it fair for all disabled athletes,” explained Reid.
“B1, B2, and B3 VI athletes are in the VI classification, with B1 being the most severe and B3 being the least. All of these classifications are allowed guides. These athletes compete at different time percentages.
B3 athletes always finish 100% of their time, while B2 and B1 athletes finish with a lower percentage rate. The percentages depend on the distances, but an example from a distance race I have guided looks like this: 100% time for B3s, 98% for B2s, and 88% for B1s. Jake has no vision in his right eye, and the left eye has only a tenth of the vision of a normal eye. Jake is in the race class division that has the most vision.
Jake is classified as a B3, but one of his best competitors is a B1 and fully blind. If his B1 competitor races a 10K in 25 minutes and the classification is 88%, his actual time is 22 minutes. Jake, who is a B3 and has a 100% classification, must complete his 10K in under 22 minutes to win the race. The standing and sitting para ski race categories work similarly regarding time percentages.
Challenges in Guiding for Para World Cup Races
Reid shared, “Because Jake is so fast, he needs guides that are also putting their time towards racing professionally so that we are fit enough to stay ahead of him. This is by far one of the biggest challenges for the ski guide. On a day when I’m not feeling great, Jake is pretty close to me in speed. Jake and the coaches have decided to bring two ski guides to the 2026 Milan-Cortina Paralympics to provide a backup guide to hop in if needed (subbing guides are fully legal to do during the race).”
“The other challenge as a guide is ensuring that you ski smoothly and predictably,” Reid shared. I need to be an easy skier for Jake to follow and avoid accelerating too quickly, which could create a gap. Jake and I also communicate during races, calling out to speed up, slow down, make a gap, or pass someone, among other things. There are races where I have performed this better than others, but the goal is to complete a good number of competitions before the most important ones at the 2026 Paralympic Games.”
Spending time with the U.S. Para Nordic team is no different than other teams I have been on. I enjoy the new friendships I’ve made and learning about new aspects of the sport. It is interesting to talk with a sit-skier to see how they navigate a downhill much differently than I do. These elements can create challenges, but it is exciting to see how athletes become innovative in their ski technique,” shared Reid.
Chasing Gold at the 2026 Tobloach Winter Paralympic Games
Jake has high expectations for the 2026 Paralympic Games in Toblach, Italy. “ I desire to win all four races in the 10 km classic, 20 km skate, and 4 x 2.5 km team relay events,” shared Jake. “Jake is on track to achieve this goal, and everyone believes he can accomplish it this next year,” shared Reid. Jake is currently the best visually impaired athlete in the World.
“I am fortunate to be a part of such an outstanding U.S. Paralympic team. The team culture is very positive and encouraging. We are all very invested in cheering each other on at our different competitions,” shared Jake.
Jake received the 2011 U.S. Ski and Snowboard Dave Quinn Award, which honors athletes who exemplify the ideals of cross-country skiing, including a love of the sport, a strong work ethic, and the ability to overcome hardship.
Paralympic Television Coverage
Many years ago, I remember watching the Paralympic Games on television while in Europe, when I was traveling to race in the Engadin World Loppet. I felt inspired and amazed by these incredible athletes. Why had I not seen the Paralympic Games before in the United States?
The television coverage of the Paralympic Games has significantly evolved from limited highlights to extensive, global broadcast coverage, especially in recent years. Initially, the Paralympics, which began in 1960, struggled for visibility and commercial investment. Only in 1992 did the event receive solid television coverage, with the BBC providing coverage for the Barcelona Games.
I encourage you to tune in for the upcoming 2026 Paralympic Games in Italy, March 6 – 15, 2026! I look forward to cheering on Jake, Reid, and Peter as they race in tandem for the Gold!
Kim Rudd
