Just days after a brutal crash that left her battered, American skier Paula Moltzan stormed back to claim third place in Saturday’s World Cup giant slalom, earning emotional praise from teammate and skiing icon Mikaela Shiffrin for her unbreakable resilience.
Swiss star Camille Rast claimed her maiden giant slalom victory with a commanding performance, clocking 2:00.09 to edge Austria’s Julia Scheib by 0.20 seconds. Moltzan, still feeling the effects of her heavy fall in Semmering the previous weekend, rounded out the podium at +0.47 seconds — her seventh career World Cup podium and second of the season.d7c897,a195ca,c2d4af
Shiffrin, continuing her steady rebuild in giant slalom after her own injury-plagued season last year, finished a strong fifth — just 1.05 seconds off the win and less than two-tenths from the podium.
But the day belonged to Moltzan. The Minnesota native admitted post-race that completing two clean runs felt like a victory in itself after the Semmering scare. “I’m really happy,” she said. “It’s nice to come back after two DNFs last weekend and be back on the podium.”
Shiffrin, ever the supportive teammate, took to Instagram to hail Moltzan’s grit: “Tbh I have no idea how you did that after last weekend, but let’s just bow down to the TOUGHEST.”
The result highlighted a banner day for the U.S. women, with Nina O’Brien eighth and Elisabeth Bocock 14th — three Americans in the top 10.
With the Milan-Cortina Olympics just weeks away, Moltzan’s rebound serves as a powerful reminder of the mental and physical toughness required at the elite level. As Shiffrin continues gaining confidence in GS, and Moltzan proves she’s back in top form, the Stifel U.S. Ski Team looks increasingly formidable heading into the Games.
