Pauls hopes U.S. sled hockey team continues Milan gold rush in Paralympics

Josh Pauls is going for the United States hat trick in Milan. 

But it’s not three goals he and the U.S. National Sled Hockey Team will be after at the 2026 Paralympic Winter Games, rather three golds for the United States, following the lead of the U.S. men’s and women’s Olympic teams from last month.  

“No country has ever won all three gold medals in hockey before in the Olympics and the Paralympics,” Pauls said this week, “so I'd say it's a little bit of pressure, but pressure is a privilege, right?”

Pauls knows all about pressure and winning. The defenseman has four Paralympic gold medals, the most of any sled hockey player in history. He won his first Paralympic gold in 2010 when he was a junior in high school. 

Now 33, he will go for his fifth gold medal and a clean sweep for the U.S. while playing on the same sheet of ice where Megan Keller and Jack Hughes scored their overtime goals to clinch gold medals for the women’s and men’s hockey teams at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026 last month.

The Opening Ceremony for the Paralympic Games is Friday, with the U.S. playing its first game against host Italy on Saturday (11:05 a.m. ET; CNBC, Peacock). The U.S. then will play Germany on Monday (12:05 p.m. ET; USA, Peacock) and China on Tuesday (8:35 a.m. ET; USA, Peacock). The playoff round will be Thursday, with the semifinals March 13 and the gold medal game March 15. 

If history is an indication, Pauls and the U.S. will be playing for gold, something he and his teammates have brought home from the past four Paralympic Games (2010, 2014, 2018, 2022).

“I have more gold medals than I really know what to do with,” Pauls joked to NHL.com this week. “But we aren't winning just because we're good at hockey. We're winning because of the brotherhood we share, because of the connection we share as players, as teammates and as friends.” 

And because it’s fun. In fact, when Pauls talks about why he still loves playing, the word fun comes up often. 

But it wasn’t always like that, which makes his story that much more remarkable. 

Born on Dec. 31, 1992, in South Plainfield, New Jersey, without tibia bones in each of his legs, Pauls had both legs amputated above the knee at 10 months old. 

Hockey was always a part of his life. His dad, Tony, and members of his extended family were all huge fans of the sport, especially the New Jersey Devils.  

“When I was 8, my family saw a flyer that a sled team from [farther south in New Jersey] was going to come up to (nearby) Bridgewater and play an able-bodied hockey team, put them in sleds and play a game,” Pauls said. “So I got to go watch that, I thought it was pretty cool. Then they put me in a sled, and I there's a lot of attention on me. I was the one kid that was trying it, and I was just like, ‘This is too much.’ I hated it. I didn't really like it. I was like, ‘Nah, get me out of here.’”

But two years later, his mom, Debbie, saw that a youth sled program was starting at the nearby Woodbridge Community Center. Pauls, then 10, decided to give it another shot. 

It’s a decision that would change the course of his life and the fortunes of USA Sled Hockey. 

“My parents were like, ‘This drive is a little bit more manageable. If we wanted to get you involved in hockey, why don't you give it one more try?’ And I'm very glad they did,” Pauls said. “Because whatever changed in two years, I absolutely loved it. The first time I jumped on the ice there I made some really good friends on that team and we still talk today. It was a really cool experience.” 

One of the founders and coaches of the Woodbridge program was John Eberhardt, who at the time was the township’s recreation director. He said that with the help of township, the New York Rangers and donors, they were able to start the program with a dozen sled players. 

The program, which also provides the chance to play upright hockey for kids and adults with disabilities, has been going strong ever since. 

“They don’t need to skate or anything. We’ll teach them everything,” said Kimberly Schmalenberger, who runs the program with her husband, Stewart. “They just need the love of hockey.”

Josh Pauls, who is going for his fifth Paralympic gold medal for the U.S. National Sled Team in Milan this week, first fell in the love with the sport as a 10-year-old playing for a new team in Woodbridge, New Jersey.

Incredibly, it has produced two members of the 2026 Paralympic team: Pauls and Jack Wallace, who won gold for the U.S. in 2018 and 2022 and is in Milan as well. 

Eberhardt said it was clear right away that Pauls was destined for greatness.

“By the second or third practice, [we could tell] yeah, he’s going places,” Eberhardt said. “His speed. He also had a hockey sense. He could see the ice, he could see the rink. He could anticipate. He was excellent.” 

Eberhardt said Pauls’ sense of humor also stuck out. He told a story of Pauls leaving his prosthetics on the bench when his team was coming off the ice and another team was coming on. A young player from another team accidentally knocked over Pauls’ prosthetics. 

“This kid just felt awkward, and Josh looked at him and kind of broke the ice and said, ‘Oh boy, I’m just going to pieces today.’”

In 2006, Pauls went to a USA development camp to follow his dream of going to the Paralympics. It didn’t go well.

“That was my first experience kind of the first time being away from home, being away from Mom and Dad,” Pauls said. “That was definitely weird. I was a super shy kid, I didn't really talk a whole lot. And then the next year I came back, and my coach kind of looked at me after one of the games, and was like, ‘Man, when you came here last year, you were one of the worst players out there, and now, like, you're one of the best.’ That was the kind of moment where I was like, ‘All right, maybe I have a future in this.’”

Kevin McKee, who is one of Pauls’ best friends and has won three Paralympic gold medals, met him at the U.S. development camp and said he could also tell right away he was meant for big things. 

“He’s a couple of years younger that me, but even at that time you could tell that he just had the drive and the willpower to do whatever it took to get there,” McKee said. “At that time, a young kid, just energy, just wanting to go. That was kind of his role when he first made the national team was on the third line, just give energy for the team at the time, and I think he was perfect for it.” 

Sled hockey was invented at a rehab center in Stockholm, Sweden, in the early 1960s. It was introduced at the 1994 Paralympics in Lillehammer, Norway, and has been there ever since. Players are in sleds that sit on top of two hockey skate blades and use two sticks, which have metal picks on the butt end, to help propel themselves.

And like in the men’s and women’s ice hockey tournaments at the 2026 Olympics, there will be plenty of action and hitting in the Paralympics — with one big difference. 

“When the men and women get hit into the into the boards, the glass moves. The boards don't,” Pauls said. “We're not tall enough to get hit into the glass, so the hits are fierce. And, I mean, it's so fast, it's so much faster in person. I've never seen anybody come out of a live sled hockey game and been like, ‘Eh, that was OK.’ Everybody's always enthralled with it.”

Pauls got his first taste of international sled hockey at the 2009 World Championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic. At age 16, he was the youngest member of the gold medal winning team. The next year, he made his first appearance in the Paralympic Games, winning the first of four straight gold medals for the United States, repeating the feat in 2014 (Sochi), 2018 (PyeongChang), and 2022 (Beijing). He was captain of the team in 2018 and 2022 and will be captain again in Milan.

“He’s just matured and became such a great leader for our team,” McKee said. “To me, he’s the best captain we’ve ever had.” 

The longest-tenured U.S. national sled team player in his 17th season, Pauls has represented his country in the World Championships 10 times (seven gold medals) and played in 15 Para Hockey Cups (11 first-place finishes).

And now he is going for another Olympic gold, trying to follow up what the U.S. men and women did in Milan.

Pauls said the sled team took a break from practice to watch overtime of the women’s gold medal game against Canada on Feb. 19. As for the men’s gold medal game three days later, Pauls, a Devils fan, said seeing Hughes score the winner was “pretty awesome.” 

But unlike the men’s team, the sled team comes into the Paralympics as the dominant team in the sport. 

“If anything, we're probably more synonymous to the men's Canadian team because of how dominant they were, and kind of the dominance we've shown in the sport,” Pauls said. “But you never know what's going to happen when you run into a hot goaltender, into a team that plays well. So we have to take it one game at a time and earn our way into the semifinal and then hopefully earn our way into the gold medal game.” 

And, of course, have fun doing it, a lesson he learned from Jeff Sauer, his former coach with the U.S. sled team, who died in 2017. 

“As the captain, I try to make sure guys are continually having fun, even if we have to work, even through moments of adversity, even through the tough part in the in the season,” Pauls said. “[Sauer] really just, he made it fun, and I'll always remember him for that.”

One fun thing Pauls does before each game is take a Mr. Potato Head doll and have it face the opposing team’s locker room, earning Pauls the nickname Spuds. 

“He’s pretty easygoing, does jokes here and there,” McKee said. “He’s really good with pregame speeches to the team and he just tries to keep the energy up. I think he realizes out of the three captains we have, the other two assistants, he has to be the one to bring the energy and keep the guys positive.

“He’s been through everything. He’s been one of the bottom players on the team when he first made it to now being one of the No. 1 guys. He’s the best, man.” 

Using that attitude, his talent and the bond he’s formed with his U.S. teammates, Pauls is hoping to make more memories in Milan and complete the U.S. hat trick. 

“We're very dominant in the sport, and we're guys that that know we have a target on our back,” Pauls said, “but I think at the same time, the pressure is a privilege and we're honored to be in that position. But past results aren't necessarily an indicator of future success. So we’ve got to make sure we earn every chance we get.”