Wisconsin duo starts 2-0 in Special Olympics USA Games cornhole
Jennifer and Lori Fuerstenau opened Unified doubles with wins over Texas and Oklahoma, putting Wisconsin on the front foot in cornhole’s USA Games debut.
Jennifer Fuerstenau and Lori Fuerstenau gave Wisconsin an immediate lift in the first cornhole action of the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games, opening Unified doubles preliminary play with a 2-0 day on June 25.
The Beaver Dam pair handled Texas 21-17 in the first match, then followed with a 17-9 win over Oklahoma. That clean start mattered because the Unified bracket was still settling in while cornhole was making its debut as an official Special Olympics USA Games sport for the first time in the event’s history.
Jennifer Fuerstenau is listed as a 61-year-old athlete from Beaver Dam, and Lori Fuerstenau is listed as a 57-year-old Unified partner from Beaver Dam. Their two wins kept them perfect in preliminary play and put them in strong position heading into the medal rounds later in the day at the University of Minnesota Field House.
Wisconsin had more than one pair working through the draw. Will Hautamaki and Joe Neumann also went 2-0 in traditional doubles, while Jeff Johnson and Scott Prairie split their two matches and Jacob Decker and Dominick Mack dropped both contests. For Team Wisconsin, the early results showed real depth across the cornhole roster rather than one isolated hot hand.
The opening day carried extra weight because the sport was not a side attraction. Cornhole was one of 16 official sports on the 2026 USA Games program, which ran June 20-26 in Minnesota and brought together 3,000 athletes, 1,500 coaches, 10,000 volunteers and 75,000 fans from all 50 states. Special Olympics said more than 4,800 athletes and Unified partners train and compete in cornhole each year, a number that helps explain why the bracket looked so sharp from the first bags thrown.
The schedule packed singles preliminary rounds into the morning, then moved into doubles preliminary play, Unified doubles preliminary play and medal rounds later the same day. That kind of compressed format rewards teams that find rhythm fast, and the Fuerstenaus did exactly that. In a sport where one bag can swing a game, Wisconsin’s 2-0 start was more than a good opening: it was early proof that the state could contend on cornhole’s biggest national stage.
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