Day one of competition at the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games was full of historic and exciting moments.

The day included the official debut of a brand new USA Games sport: pickleball. At 9 a.m. on Monday morning, the first ever games of USA Games pickleball took place, and Team Missouri made a splash out of the gate. Missouri was a part of three of the first four games, and walked away with wins in every single one.

The success continued for a couple of those Missouri teams. Florica Gault and her unified partner Jennie Petterson hold an undefeated 4-0 record atop the standings in unified female doubles. John Eckart, with Jennie’s husband Ken as his unified partner, stands at a perfect 3-0 in unified male/mixed doubles. See the rest of the pickleball standings below:

Over on the golf course, 3-time gold medalist Scott Rohrer leads the pack by a significant margin after shooting a 71 to put himself even par through the first 18 holes. Rohrer nearly made that a 70 when he came inches away from an eagle on hole 16, ultimately winding up with a tap-in birdie.

It was great to see Rohrer again after covering him when he won gold at my very first USA Games in 2018. I also met Team South Carolina golf coach Wendy Waddle, who took an awesome photo of me and Scott. My photos with Scott from both 2018 and 2026 are below:

While Rohrer has a 10-stroke lead and appears bound for the top division come Wednesday morning, it is currently unclear who will join him there. The fight for second place is a tight battle that includes nine golfers within eleven strokes of each other. Brett Geiger, who was in Rohrer’s tee group today, currently holds second place, but many others are right behind him.

The group of golfers trailing Geiger includes USA Games veterans like Miles Stroud and Garrett Stortz, adaptive golf regulars like Wake Mullins and Zachary Duncan, and the Flutie Foundation’s own STARS of Spectrum golfer Daniel Steele. Steele started his day just +2 after four holes, and nailed an incredible putt from the fringe on hole 3.

While holes 5 and 10 were a struggle, Steele bounced back to finish his day with a score of 90. If Steele can improve upon his performance on those two holes, he has the potential to gain significant ground on the leaderboard, as pictured below:

Tomorrow, golfers will play one more round with their Monday tee groups before divisioning takes place ahead of Wednesday and Thursday’s competition. Similarly, over in pickleball, round robins in all three events will wrap up tomorrow and the schedule will be set for the medal rounds. Check BostonSportsMania.com tomorrow for a recap of all the Tuesday action and a preview of the homestretch here in Minnesota.