(NEXSTAR) - Kendall Gretsch secured silver and bronze medals in Para biathlon events this weekend, marking her eighth and ninth career Paralympic medals. Gretsch, a rare dual-season athlete, earned silver in the Para sprint biathlon on Saturday and bronze in the women's sitting Para biathlon on Sunday. The podium finishes continue a successful year for Gretsch, who also earned a silver medal in the Para triathlon during the Paris Games. With experience across five Paralympic Games in both summer and winter sports, Gretsch has become a veteran leader for the U.S. team while managing a condensed racing schedule that she described as more draining than the typical World Cup circuit. The Downers Grove, Illinois, native's latest victories bring her total to nine medals earned across five Paralympic Games. The athlete noted that preparing for Nordic skiing is difficult because the training relies on intuition rather than technical statistics. Gretsch described the sport as unique because there is often no data to indicate performance levels until a race begins. "I think Nordic skiing is really unique in that when you're training, there's no kind of, like, data or information about how you're doing," Gretsch said. "Everything is just kind of based off of feel, so it's really hard to tell, like, am I skiing well, am I not skiing well if you're not racing." Gretsch said she felt anxious to complete her first race of the week to gauge her performance. Following her podium finishes, she noted that the presence of family and friends has made this competition different from previous years affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. "And for some of them, the last time that they saw me ski was eight years ago in Pyeongchang," Gretsch said. She added that it was special to have her nieces and nephews in attendance, as they were infants during her last winter appearance and will now be old enough to remember the event. Having spent years competing at the highest level of both summer and winter sports, Gretsch has moved into a leadership role within the team. She described the experience as a significant transition in her career. "It's been a weird shift for me almost the past couple of years where I realized, like, 'Oh, my gosh, yeah, I am one of the people that's been on the team the longest,'" Gretsch said. She emphasized that the relationships she has built are a priority for her. "And yeah, I think for me in sport, people and the people I've met through it are the most important things. So being able to be a mentor is really important to me." Despite her long-term success, Gretsch said she is comfortable with whatever decision she eventually makes regarding her athletic future. "But I think what's really nice about where I'm at and what I've been able to accomplish with my career is that I'm really satisfied with it," Gretsch said. Gretsch remains undecided about competing in the Los Angeles 2028 Summer Games, though she noted she is becoming more interested in the possibility of helping teammates reach the podium there. For the immediate future, she is scheduled to compete in the remaining races of the week and support her fellow athletes. All facts in this report were gathered by journalists employed by Nexstar. Artificial intelligence tools were used to reformat a broadcast script into a news article for our website. This report was edited and fact-checked by Nexstar staff before being published.