On the opening day of cross-country skiing events at the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Paralympics in Italy, China's Liu Zixu claimed gold in the men's sprint sitting final.

Six athletes advanced through the preliminaries and the semifinals earlier on Tuesday to reach the final. They raced on a one-kilometer-long track and started separately according to their degrees of disabilities.

The 28-year-old Liu, who had won the men's biathlon individual sitting crown two days earlier, crossed the finish line first in two minutes, 28.9 seconds to secure his second gold medal at the Games. Brazil's Cristian Ribera took silver, while Kazakhstan's Yerbol Khamitov earned bronze. Another Chinese athlete, Wang Tao, finished sixth.

In the men's sprint vision-impaired final, China's Yu Shuang and his course guide Shang Jincai claimed silver, 1.5 seconds behind USA's Jake Adicoff. 

In the women's category, Cong Jihong and her course guide Liu Jiaxuan took bronze, while Wang Shiyu finished third in the women's sprint sitting final to earn her first medal at the Paralympic Games.