![\"Josh](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-1384697867.jpg\")
<\/p>\nSUPERIOR, Colo. \u2014 It\u2019s mid-practice as the Team USA sled hockey team huddles up at center ice and Josh Pauls starts yelling about how a drill went.<\/p>\n
The first part went perfectly, but Pauls finds issue with team members allowing a skater to get right back to the neutral zone.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour job isn\u2019t done just because you got rid of the puck,\u201d Pauls says in the middle of one of their pre-Paralympics residency practices at a rink here.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a small chuckle from someone standing near one of the benches.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, 15 years ago, Josh would not be doing that,\u201d says Bill Sandberg, who\u2019s served as equipment manager for the team.<\/p>\n
Sandberg points to the back of the group, signaling where Pauls would\u2019ve been stationed mid-practice when he first started playing for the team. Sandberg remembers the teenage Pauls who, as the youngest member of the team, never spoke unless he was spoken to. While Pauls didn\u2019t initially make the 2010 Paralympic team, the 17-year-old eventually made it to the Vancouver Games after a late dropout.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was lucky to be there,\u201d Pauls said.<\/p>\n
Sandberg said the young Pauls never complained about the process.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very rewarding for me to see someone 15 years later I knew as a 15-year-old kid going into his fifth Paralympic Games,\u201d Sandberg said.<\/p>\n
But Pauls isn\u2019t merely just going to his fifth Games. He will be chasing his fifth straight sled hockey gold medal as Team USA looks to keep a streak alive that started at the 2010 Games. A fifth would further cement an already dynastic run. Saying it aloud might sound like a lot of pressure, but for Pauls, it would be a \u201ccherry on top.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cFour in a row doesn\u2019t ever happen,\u201d said Pauls, who is the only remaining player on the current roster from the 2010 squad. \u201cNeither does five in a row. So, like, we\u2019re just gonna see what happens. I think we\u2019re training as best we can. The results will speak for themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Josh Pauls is competing in his fifth straight Paralympics and going for his fifth straight gold medal with Team USA. \u201cThe results will speak for themselves,\u201d he says. (Ryan Pierse \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Sixteen years of dominance has told quite a story already.<\/p>\n
Back in 2018, Landon Uthke and Liam Cunningham were just kids playing for the Minnesota Wild sled hockey team. Sitting inside a Chicago hotel lobby during a club tournament, on the TV was Canada vs. the United States in the para ice hockey gold medal game.<\/p>\n
You already know the ending.<\/p>\n
But if you don\u2019t know or don\u2019t remember the game, the United States rallied from down one goal in the final minute of regulation. With 37 seconds remaining, Declan Farmer scored the tying goal to force overtime. It was Farmer again who scored the gold-medal goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s gonna be us one day, hopefully,\u201d Uthke remembers thinking of him and Cunningham.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was pretty awesome and kind of flipped my switch, like, \u2018I want to do this,’\u201d Cunningham said.<\/p>\n
The 18-year-olds and two longtime friends are now first-time Paralympians, in Italy alongside the players they grew up watching. It\u2019s an indication of the sport\u2019s growth that they could be watching the game on TV and that there are four team members of Team USA under 20 years old playing in these Games. Beyond Pauls, the roster is a mostly even split of first-, second-, third- and fourth-time Paralympians.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the Paralympics being televised, that was a big deal,\u201d said Dan Brennan, the general manager of the sled national team since it was incorporated into USA Hockey in July 2006. \u201cThe opportunity for youth players when they first see it, to know that if they keep working hard and get better, they could go to one of our camps. We\u2019ve created a direction to the national team that wasn\u2019t there before.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Declan](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-933485956-scaled.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n Declan Farmer celebrates his overtime winner against Canada in the gold-medal game at the 2018 Games. His late-game heroics that day kept the American streak going. (Buda Mendes \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The number of players trying out has gone from 17 in Brennan\u2019s first trial to 90 players and 13 goalies, which was enough to move to an invite-only format. There are regional camps staffed by national coaches.<\/p>\n
While the United States won its first of five total Paralympic gold medals in 2002, its dominant run didn\u2019t begin until 2010 \u2014 and even then, the Americans weren\u2019t favored, as they didn\u2019t start winning regularly until late 2009. New faces started coming in over the next quad, including Farmer, who at 16 years old made his Paralympic debut in Sochi and helped the United States become the first sled hockey team to win back-to-back gold medals. Farmer, now a four-time Paralympian, was the first U.S. sled hockey player to score over 200 career goals, and over his tenure with the team has become one of its leaders alongside Pauls.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re just still hungry,\u201d Pauls said. \u201cWe\u2019re never satisfied with where we\u2019re at. And I think it starts with Declan. It\u2019d be easy for the best player in the world to say, \u2018OK, cool, I\u2019m as good as I\u2019m going to be, or I\u2019m still better than everybody even if I\u2019m not working.\u2019 (Farmer is) constantly pushing to be that little bit better, get that 1 percent every practice. And it\u2019s that hunger that has continued our success.\u201d<\/p>\n
Part of that success is their residency program in Colorado in the two months ahead of the Games with players all training together \u2014 on top of the multiple players already in the state who train together regularly. All of the work they\u2019ve put in contributed to the dominance over the years, three-time Paralympian Jack Wallace believes.<\/p>\n
About halfway through the residency program, the group headed into the mountains for a retreat, a chance to get away from the hours of ice and gym time. The plans instead: chilling, watching the Olympics, and maybe even playing some pond hockey.<\/p>\n
Then it was back to the grind as the weeks ticked down to the Games and the chance to make even more history.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would make us pretty much infamous in any sport,\u201d said Griffin LaMarre, one of the team\u2019s goalies, of winning a fifth-straight gold. \u201cYou think about a dynasty, a dynasty is what, three championships? And we\u2019re about to almost double that if we win gold. So I think it solidifies the U.S. sled hockey program as one of the greatest sports programs to ever do it, and obviously one of the best Olympic or Paralympic stories in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
That quest begins Saturday with the United States\u2019 first game coming against Italy in Group A (1:05 p.m. ET), which also features China and Germany. Each team will play each of the other three teams in its group in the preliminary round. The two top teams from each group will advance to a knockout stage for the medals.<\/p>\n
But even with the streak looming over their Games, Pauls and Farmer are confident of the legacy the group has created while also focused on being the best team in its current iteration.<\/p>\n
Pauls knows that well. Yes, there will be new experiences this year, like being one of two flag bearers \u2014 along with Laurie Stephens, a seven-time Paralympic medalist in para Alpine skiing \u2014 chosen to represent the United States at the opening ceremony. But it\u2019s the little moments, both current and past, he\u2019s trying to soak up.<\/p>\n
On the bus ride back after the 0pening ceremony in 2010, an Italian athlete pulled off Pauls\u2019 hat.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrade?\u201d Pauls remembers the athlete asking.<\/p>\n