As Jackie Wiles made her way through her downhill run on Tuesday at the Olympics in northern Italy, her teammate, Paula Moltzan, tried to channel her own nerves into positive energy.
“I was freaking out the whole time. I was talking to her as if she could hear me,” Moltzan told NBC’s “Today” program. “I was like ‘C’mon Jackie, you’ve got this.’ I was shaking. I was sweating.”
By the time it was all said and done, Wiles had finished with the fourth-fastest time in the downhill, her portion of the women’s team combined event, setting Moltzan, a Prior Lake native, up to potentially bring home the first Olympic medal for both.
Just one problem. One of the best skiers of all time was standing in their way.
After Moltzan turned in the fourth-quickest time in the slalom, Mikaela Shiffrin was the only thing separating the pair from a medal. But after Shiffrin’s partner, Breezy Johnson, gave the duo an advantage with the fastest time in the downhill, Shiffrin couldn’t capitalize. She finished 15th in the event, putting her and Johnson in fourth by .06 seconds, and fulfilling a lifelong dream for Moltzan.
Now she’s out for more, with two more events remaining at the Milan-Cortina Olympics.
The daughter of two ski instructors, Moltzan was placed on skis for the first time as a toddler. She grew up skiing at Buck Hill in Burnsville before eventually moving to Vail, Colo. with her father in the middle of high school to pursue her skiing career.
Her path hasn’t always been linear, at one point being cut by the U.S. Ski Team. But as Moltzan prepares for her next two events — she will ski on Sunday in the giant slalom and again on Wednesday in the slalom — she’s near her best. Heading into the Olympics, she is currently ranked fourth in the overall FIS Alpine Ski World Cup standings; teammate Shiffrin is first.
Milan-Cortina marks the second trip to the Olympics for Moltzan. Four years earlier in Beijing, she finished eighth in the slalom and 12th in the giant slalom. She just missed out on a medal as the United States finished fourth in the team event.
But this time around, she’ll already be skiing with a medal to her name.
“I feel like actually after getting a medal with Jackie (Tuesday), I feel like I can take a deep breath and really just like focus on my competition and think about how the skiing is going to go and let go of the fact that the medal pressure is not really there anymore,” she said on “Today.”
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