31
Prior Lake, MN
University of Vermont
Paula Motzan grew up in Prior Lake, Minnesota and started skiing at Buck Hill, the same place where Lindsey Vonn learned to ski.
At age 20, Moltzan won the junior world slalom title, becoming the first U.S. woman to win the event at the junior world championships. Less than a year later, Moltzan lost her spot on the U.S. team due to a poor World Cup campaign. Moltzan decided to attend the University of Vermont, where she won the NCAA women’s slalom title as a freshman. “I think getting asked to leave the team was the best thing that ever happened to me," Moltzan said of her decision to go to collegiate skiing, "because then I was able to go and rediscover my love for ski racing in a competitive but also really supportive atmosphere.”
She rejoined the national team and made her Olympic debut at the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, where she finished eighth in slalom and just missed the podium in the team parallel event, where Team USA finished fourth. At age 27, she became the oldest U.S. women's alpine skier to make her Olympic debut in 74 years.
After the Beijing Winter Games, Moltzan became a two-time world medalist, having won a world title in the parallel team event in 2023 and her first individual world medal, a bronze, in giant slalom in 2025. At the 2025 world championships, she finished fourth or better in all four events she competed in, just missing medals in the team combined, team parallel, and slalom competitions.
Moltzan married Ryan Mooney, her ski technician, in September 2022. Mooney travels with Moltzan on the road and also fills in as a coach, chauffeur, travel agent, and even photographer while she competes on the World Cup circuit. Mooney’s family owns a rafting company in Massachusetts, and Moltzan has spent summers working there as a whitewater rafting guide to help fund his travel expenses during ski season.
After a season full of twists and turns, the International Ski & Snowboard Federation (FIS) is headed stateside for its final alpine skiing event. For the first time in FIS history, the World Cup Final will occur at Sun Valley Resort in beautiful Sun V...
It stands as the greatest individual performance in alpine skiing at the Winter Youth Olympic Games. If experience gained at the YOG is meant to be a catalyst for future athletic success on higher levels, then River Radamus is the poster boy. Radamus c...
One morning last January, Alli Macuga woke up early because she had a flight to catch. She was flying East for World Cup moguls competitions in New Hampshire and Quebec. Once she was out of bed, Alli found her mother in a tizzy.“I thought a cat had die...
After a season full of twists and turns, the International Ski & Snowboard Federation (FIS) is headed stateside for its final alpine skiing event. For the first time in FIS history, the World Cup Final will occur at Sun Valley Resort in beautiful Sun V...
Winning world cup ski races versus elite competition at the highest level, by large margins of 1.2 seconds or greater is highly improbable, unusual and for most ski racers, unthinkable. Then factor in an athlete being out of race form and battling back...
As the senior member of the Stifel U.S. Alpine Ski Team downhill squad, Jacqueline Wiles has been launching off jumps and soaring through the air on world cup race courses for more than a decade. More recently, she is also taking flight, while at the c...
It stands as the greatest individual performance in alpine skiing at the Winter Youth Olympic Games. If experience gained at the YOG is meant to be a catalyst for future athletic success on higher levels, then River Radamus is the poster boy. Radamus c...
