MILAN - Jake Adicoff and his guide, Reid Goble, won the 10-kilometer visually impaired classic cross-country skiing race Tuesday at the Paralympics in Italy. The victory marks the second gold medal for Adicoff during these games.
Goble, a native of Petoskey, Mich., brings a history of competitive skiing to the partnership. He raced throughout his childhood and later competed for Michigan Tech before turning professional. He finished the previous season as the sixth-ranked racer on the domestic circuit and had competed against Adicoff in various races before they became teammates.
Adicoff is supported by a guiding team that includes Goble and Peter Walter. Guides are responsible for leading the pace and helping the athlete navigate the course at maximum speed.
Adicoff entered the current Paralympic cycle with a career record of one gold medal and three silver medals. In addition to Goble, the team includes Walter, another guide from Sun Valley, who shares the guiding responsibilities. Their primary objective for the games in Italy is to achieve a clean sweep of gold medals in their four events.
As a visually impaired athlete, Adicoff competes in the B3 classification, a category reserved for participants with the least visual impairment. In this class, athletes race at 100% of their actual time, meaning a 10-minute finish is recorded as exactly 10 minutes. According to Goble, other categories use a time-factoring system to account for more severe vision loss. Athletes in the B1 class, who are fully blind, receive a factored time of 88%, while B2 athletes receive a 98% factor.
The role of the guide is to remain in front of the athlete to push the pace. Goble explained that his responsibility is to go as hard as possible to ensure Adicoff moves at a faster speed than he would be able to achieve alone. He noted in a previous interview with 9&10 that the success of the pair is determined by the physical intensity they can maintain throughout the course.
“Your results are basically based on how hard you can go,” Goble said. “And there’s something a little freeing about that. It’s like solely on you, you know, you get to push your body, and if you push it hard enough, you can win.”
Adicoff and his team will continue to compete in the remaining events of the Paralympic cycle in Italy as they pursue their goal of a clean sweep of medals. Goble will guide Adicoff in the 4x2.5-kilometer cross-country skiing relay beginning on March 14th at 5:00 a.m. Eastern time.
To find our full exclusive interview with Reid Goble, click here.