Paula Moltzan stretched across the finish line, looked at the board and dropped her jaw at what she saw. By the slimmest of margins, the American who has an Olympic appearance and competed across 12 World Cup seasons had secured the biggest result of her career — a world championship individual medal.
The 30-year-old Moltzan edged Norway’s Thea Louise Stjernesund by 0.01 seconds on Thursday for the bronze medal in giant slalom at the Alpine skiing world championships in Saalbach, Austria.
It was a career highlight for the top two finishers as well. Italian star Federica Brignone ran away with her first career individual gold medal at the world championships, topping both runs and finishing in 2:22.71. That was 0.90 ahead of New Zealand’s Alice Robinson, who cruised to silver, 1.72 better than Moltzan. The 23-year-old won her first career medal at worlds — and her country’s first ever in Alpine skiing.
Brignone — at 34, the oldest woman to win a world title — leads the overall World Cup standings thanks to her all-around skills. She tops the downhill ranks and is second in super-G and third in giant slalom, with wins in all three disciplines this season. She took silver in the super-G earlier this week but missed the podium in the downhill, finishing 10th.
Robinson, the top giant slalom skier on the World Cup tour this season, has four World Cup wins in her career, including last month in Kronplatz, Italy.
For Moltzan, the high comes two days after a disappointing end Tuesday in the women’s team combined, which pairs two skiers and features a downhill leg and a slalom leg. Moltzan teamed with rising American speed skier Lauren Macuga. The 22-year-old Macuga posted the fastest downhill time to set the U.S. duo up for a medal chance.
But Moltzan struggled in the slalom, finishing 15th and dropping her and Macuga off the podium. U.S. teammates Mikaela Shiffrin and Breezy Johnson won the gold.
Shiffrin, a 22-time World Cup winner in giant slalom, did not defend her world title in the event, pulling out earlier this week and citing mental struggles in the wake of her giant slalom crash in a race in Vermont in November.
Competing in her fifth world championships, it’s Moltzan’s second medal but first individual. She also won gold with the Americans in the team parallel event in 2023.
A 2022 Olympian, Moltzan has made four World Cup podiums in her 12 seasons on tour, including a giant slalom bronze in the Kronplatz race last month. She’s in the midst of one of her best overall seasons, currently 15th in the World Cup standings.
(Photo of Paul Moltzan celebrating Thursday’s run: Dimitar Dilkoff / AFP via Getty Images)
