For Paula Moltzan, there’s no place like home

Quietly amidst the fanfare of Mikaela Shiffrin’s decisive victory and record-breaking day, one of the happiest athletes in Killington was Paula Moltzan. An hour after the race was over, and long after the awards were handed out, Moltzan, who started 15th and finished seventh, was still hanging out and chatting in the finish area.

“I was just motivated after having not-amazing races in Levi (she had a DNF and a 24th) to really put my best skiing out there on the hill in front of the hometown crowd and my family,” Moltzan said after the race.

For U.S. racers, one of the many advantages of a domestic World Cup is the fanbase that is absent elsewhere on the tour. Moltzan’s supporters were impressive, in both volume and spirit. They included her 20 plus relatives from Minnesota—parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncle and niece — as well as her fiancé Ryan Mooney’s family, based in Charlemont, Mass.

Mooney travels with her full time as her ski tech, and is an integral part of the tech team. Moltzan’s “family” expands beyond blood relatives of herself and Ryan. It includes her fellow employees from the Mooney family’s whitewater rafting company, the kids she tended there as a summer nanny, the Berkshire East skiing community and a tribe of Vermont friends from her time racing on the NCAA circuit for UVM. The local connection is also reflected in Moltzan’s Vermont-based sponsors like Skida and AquaViTea. All are familiar with Moltzan’s unconventional path, as well as the work and sheer will that forged it.

The Olympic dream detour

For Moltzan, the 2015 world junior slalom champ, this result is the next step in realizing a dream that was snuffed when she was cut from the U.S. Ski Team in 2016, then rekindled at Killington in 2018. At the time, she was racing for UVM and had qualified to race at Killington through time trials. “I was still kind of in school and you just don’t really know what’s going to happen when you’re in school.” In the 2018 race, her stunning 17th-place finish sent her back to the World Cup, independently at first, accompanied only by Mooney and financially supported by friends, family and fans.

By the next season, she was again part of the U.S. Ski Team but struggled to maintain her progress. She used the time off snow during Covid to commit to physical training, working out twice a day in the Mooney’s barn, which was repurposed as a gym. It paid off last season, as she steadily built her presence on the World Cup, in all tech events. She notched a 10th in her second World Cup GS ever, found the podium in a parallel and topped her eight slalom scores with a 5th place. Finally the Olympic dream came back into focus.

Pressure and support

Finishing two fast, clean runs of World slalom is always a near miraculous feat of skill and nerves, and especially challenging in front of 10,000 people who bring both energy and consequence. On the first run, Moltzan drew on the strength of her team, who are invested in each other’s success. “Luckily, I had a lot of time watching my teammates in the first run, so I didn’t have to think about my skiing too much.” On the second run, the crowd at Killington is deafening, and even more so for an American after the last TV break in the final batch of eight racers. “Yeah, it’s definitely a learning curve. I’ve been here a couple times, but it doesn’t get any easier,” said Moltzan of keeping her calm between runs. “I just kind of kept it in my zone, put my headphones in, played a game on my phone and just didn’t really think about it.”

In the end, Moltzan led at all the splits and had no mistakes but slipped back a spot in the final section to finish seventh. “To finally put down the skiing that I’ve had all prep season in front of the crowd and on a race day feels really good.” In a typically understated way, Moltzan noted what this momentum also means: “Obviously I’ve dreamed of going to the Olympics my whole life, and today maybe was the first punch in my ticket.”

Her finish to the roaring crowd brought smiles and tears to her fans, many of whom have been with her for every step of her unlikely comeback. To them, her success is satisfying and personal, and they are enjoying the ride.

Among them was Jon Flaherty, who grew up skiing at Berkshire East, and watched Ryan come up through the ski racing ranks. Before even knowing Moltzan, he helped her find training in Austria when she and Mooney took on the World Cup tour independently in 2018-19. Earlier this season, Flaherty and his wife traveled to cheer her on at the parallel event in Lech. They were the only fans to greet the American women when they came out of the finish corral. “I thought right then, ‘How do we get 60 people for them at a race in Austria to cheer?’” In Killington, the Flahertys showed up with a batch of “Moltzan” hockey jerseys.

Contagious support

“It is amazing what a little support will do,” says Flaherty, who notes that some people operate best with the added pressure of fans. “I think that’s Paula. With that kind of support she pulls the trigger.” Moltzan’s social media posts regularly give shout-outs to her team of coaches and athletes, and the positive dynamic Mooney adds cannot be overstated. In addition to tending Moltzan’s equipment, he is also in the start for her and her teammates. He looks out for them on the road, helping manage travel logistics and down time, and his pictures, posted regularly on Instagram, catalog the team’s travels and training. As one friend describes it, Mooney’s support is contagious, inspiring them in good times (Soelden) and buoying them in tough times (Lech and Levi).  

The plan now, is to keep that support rolling. That means continuing to find sponsors (Moltzan is fully funded, but 60% of Mooney’s travel and expenses are not), and getting fans on the road. Moltzan and Mooney will take a few days off in Charlemont, then head back on the road through late March. From here on out, hometown spirit depends entirely on imports. After the race, the Moltzan jerseys were handed off to the Mooney’s who will take them to the night slalom in Flachau. There, they will cheer on Paula and the U.S. Team and hope to welcome more fans into the club.

Follow Paula and her teammates @paulamoltzan.

Paula’s equipment partners are Rossignol, POC, Level, Leki. She recently signed with Homelight, Toyota, Stio and Wintersteiger and is in her third year of partnership with Skida and Aqua ViTea.