Paula Moltzan on her ‘unconventional’ ski racing journey, reconnecting with Mikaela Shiffrin, and globe ambitions at age 30

Paula Moltzan on her ‘unconventional’ ski racing journey, reconnecting with Mikaela Shiffrin, and globe ambitions at age 30

In this exclusive interview, the Minnesota native reflects on achieving her best results this season and the lessons she learned after regaining her spot on Team USA a few years ago.

“I’m just getting started,” Paula Moltzan says, a beaming smile on her face.

After an ‘unconventional’ journey in elite alpine skiing, which at one point saw her competing at the college level, the USA tech specialist has finally found the consistency needed to be a regular podium contender.

This season, at nearly 31 years old, Moltzan has achieved the best results of her career, earning two World Cup podiums and a bronze medal in giant slalom at the last World Championships in Saalbach. It was her first individual accolade in a major senior competition.

Her performances, which also include seven individual top-5 finishes across the World Cup and Worlds, have added to the impressive results of the USA women’s team this campaign, notably the victories of Mikaela Shiffrin, Lauren Macuga, and Breezy Johnson.

“I think there’s just a lot of positive momentum carrying us right now,” Moltzan told Olympics.com.

Moltzan is the top-ranked USA skier (6th) in giant slalom, followed by Nina O’Brien, AJ Hurt and Katie Hensien, who are all in the top 20.

“Any given day, one of those girls could be smoking me in training, and then the next day it could be somebody else,” Moltzan said. “It’s just always pushing the environment of fast skiing, and I think for me in GS, that’s been one thing that’s really helped me this season to make that next step.”

That is why competing for a globe no longer feels out of reach, even at what is considered a mature age in alpine skiing: “That is definitely on my long-term goal sheet, and I’m hoping that next season or the following season I can find that consistency and make it happen. Who knows, maybe in GS or slalom. (Italy’s overall World Cup leader) Federica Brignone is now so dominant and she’s older than me, so I know it’s possible. She’s got over half of her wins after the age of 30!”

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Paula Moltzan won her first medal in a major senior event at the Saalbach 2025 World Championships.

Paula Moltzan’s journey to rediscover her love for skiing

Nowadays nothing seems impossible for someone who, at one point, questioned her future in the sport.

Less than a year after her junior world slalom title in 2015, Moltzan lost her spot on the US team due to a poor World Cup campaign.

She did not give up, however, and decided to race at the college level instead.

“I definitely would say it’s unconventional in a ski racing journey to be on the national team, go to university and then come back to the national team,” Moltzan said.

“I was 22 years old. I didn’t really know what other options were out there. I wasn’t in a financial place to go independent for a year, and so the only place for me was to go to university, and I was lucky enough to end up at the University of Vermont.”

It was a successful experience, highlighted by an NCAA slalom title, which taught Moltzan the importance of being part of a team.

“I think getting asked to leave the team was the best thing that ever happened to me because then I was able to go and rediscover my love for ski racing in a competitive but also really supportive atmosphere,” she said. “I was on a team of athletes and we competed every weekend as a team. It was no longer just about you, and so you learn how to be a team player, how to support the other athletes. I learned a lot.”

After rejoining Team US in 2018, Moltzan learned never to take anything for granted: “I did a lot of growing up at college, and I think that has paid off in the long run. Now, you would say that I have been able to be coachable, be a good teammate, be flexible and I think you just learn to be grateful. And that’s what I am, I’m grateful for this second opportunity as a World Cup skier and I’m grateful to be able to train with fast skiers every single day because that was not an option when I was in college.”

Now, at 30, the Minnesotan can look back on her teenage mistakes with a new and honest perspective.

“I don’t know if I was spoiled, I think I just felt entitled,” she shared.

“I was 17 years old, I was the best-ranked in my age group besides Mikaela and I thought that the US ski team should be helping me out more, doing more for me, or maybe giving me better opportunities to train with faster athletes. But I think I was maybe a little bit insane! So I don’t know where I got it in my head that I was so good because I wasn’t obviously.”

Gym sessions in the barn and the support of husband Ryan Mooney

Since rejoining the World Cup team, Moltzan has become a better and more complete athlete.

“I feel like my strength and conditioning was the last piece to click in my career,” she said. “I came from being a young athlete that had some raw, natural talent and maybe didn’t have to work as hard in the summer.”

The Minneapolis-born skier started to spend more time in the gym when Covid hit in 2020 and still vividly remembers the gruelling workout sessions inside a barn in Massachusetts: “I built a gym inside of my husband’s parents’ woodshed. The first year, there wasn’t cement on the floor. And then the second year there wasn’t any power. And then it slowly got nicer and nicer. But yeah, it was definitely a little bit rugged.”

In the last few years Moltzan found more advanced training facilities in Vermont, where she moved with her husband (from 2022) Ryan Mooney, a former skier who attended the renowned Greenmount Valley Ski School.

“Ryan doesn’t get enough credit,” Moltzan said. “Ryan was also at university with me while we were there together and so he has been tuning my skis since then. I think probably without him there, I wouldn’t have been able to make a comeback.”

Mooney has supported his wife not only as a coach, but also as a chauffer, travel agent, and even as a photographer: “He’s been there through every moment of my career, good or bad. And he’s definitely my biggest critic. And yeah, that’s tough when the person you love the most is really hard on you, but it also pushes you to be better and pushes you to be the best you can.”

So important was it to have Mooney on the road with her that Moltzan worked as a whitewater raft guide during the summer so she could raise funds to pay his travel bills.

A young Paula Moltzan (left) with Mikaela Shiffrin (right) in 2015.

Paula Moltzan: Crossing paths with Lindsey Vonn and Mikaela Shiffrin

While now based on the East Coast, Moltzan still cherishes her Midwestern roots: “We’re nice to everyone and I think that’s one part that I’ve learned about being Minnesotan.”

Like her idol Lindsey Vonn, Moltzan was raised at the so-called US ski ‘slalom factory’ of Buck Hill, south of Minneapolis, which helped shape her as a skier.

“It’s a pretty humble start,” she said about the small resort with a 300-feet (93m) vertical drop. “I’m not from a big mountain, so I never really spend that much time free skiing. I really did spend time in the gate. We have so many repetitions at such a young age that I think it set us up for success. You learn the feeling at a very young age of what’s a good turn versus what’s a bad turn.”

Moltzan also had an opportunity to work with famed Austrian coach Erich Sailer: “He still supports me to this day. I get a lot of texts from him, even though I think he’s like 99, which is pretty impressive that him and his wife still text me basically after every good result!”

Mikaela Shiffrin was another important figure on Moltzan’s ski journey.

“Mikaela and I are 11 months apart. I don’t think I can really remember too many moments in my ski career that she wasn’t around and from a really young age she was super talented,” Moltzan said. “The last time I maybe beat her in a ski race, I was 13 or 14 at Whistler Cup. So she’s always been super competitive and she’s always been super fast and super hard working.”

During the early World Cup years, the two skiers were on the same team and shared coaches until their paths eventually diverged: “She chose to have her own team, removing herself from the team setting. But then I also left the US ski team, so there’s this gap in our friendship relationship just because we are both very much doing our own thing.”

Over time, though, Shiffrin has rekindled her relationship with Moltzan and the team.

“I think she’s gone through her own things like losing her dad, getting injured, and I feel like some of those things have maybe helped us get closer and that she’s more willing to talk about it or be supportive in other people’s hard times,” Moltzan said.

“Now that she’s maybe experienced some tougher races in GS, she’s realising that a team is really helpful to support on the hard days and that not every day of ski racing is going to be easy. I think that being around the team of girls has maybe helped her a little bit and she’s reached out for support, which is nice to feel needed by somebody and be there for her because she has so much success.”

Paula Moltzan (right) celebrated her second podium of the season in Sestriere, where Shiffrin claimed her 100th World Cup victory

Paula Moltzan: Looking forward to the home Finals in Sun Valley

Despite her recent success in giant slalom, Moltzan said that she simply feels ‘a tech specialist’ and she won’t prioritise any discipline ahead of the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina 2026.

“I definitely started out as a slalom skier, and I had a coach that basically told me I would never be a successful World Cup GS skier, and I’m happy to have proved him wrong,” she said with a smile, choosing not to reveal the name of the coach.

The 30-year-old is one of the home favourites at the upcoming World Cup Finals in Sun Valley, Idaho, where a big crowd is expected to support one of the strongest USA teams in recent years.

“The whole US women’s team has so much talent, and literally at any given start, one of the girls could win a race,” Moltzan said. “That’s just so motivating and so unique, and it’s been so long since the era of Lindsey (Vonn) and Julia (Mancuso) were dominating the women’s stories.”

Moltzan won the national title in giant slalom on the same slopes in 2024 and is now eager to wrap up the season in style.

“As an American in a very European dominated sport, to be able to compete on home soil is just really awesome,” she said. “The crowd is so good and you’re so motivated because they’re there to watch you and they want to see the Americans do well. And to have such a strong team going into these American Finals is super unique, and to be able to kind of put the cherry on top of a good season in America is the goal.”