It’s been a busy and unconventional offseason for U.S. Alpine Ski Team veteran and 2022 Olympian Paula Moltzan.
Most athletes don’t begin their offseason recovering from shoulder surgery. It stemmed from an injury at the beginning of the season; Moltzan hurt herself in the fifth race of the FIS World Cup season during the slalom run at Killington, dislocating her left shoulder. She is no stranger to shoulder trouble; Moltzan's injury was the same shoulder she had surgery on in high school (she had two separate surgeries on her right shoulder in high school as well).
But even with the injury, Moltzan pulled through and had her best season to date on the World Cup circuit and at the world championships. With her best season under her belt – along with her first house, which she purchased in July in Vermont with her husband during the offseason – Moltzan can get back to chasing her ultimate goal: consistency.
While many know Moltzan to be a slalom skier, she had her best season to date in the giant slalom, an event where she prioritized improvement. With her primary resource being her skilled peers – Mikaela Shiffrin, the most accomplished skier of all time and a 22-time World Cup giant slalom winner, among other helpful teammates – Moltzan “put her head down” and soaked up as much as she could from her teammates.
"I put in a lot of work to make myself a better GS [giant slalom] skier," Moltzan said. "And I think a lot of the credit does go to my teammates. My teammates are very good GS skiers, and I spend, obviously, a significant amount of time with them."
Moltzan’s previous best giant slalom performances came during the 2022-23 season, capturing five top-10 finishes ranging from seventh to 10th place. She earned a sixth-place finish in the discipline during the following season’s campaign, but her hard work paid dividends during last season. The day before her slalom accident, she snagged fifth place in the giant slalom at Killington, and upon returning to the World Cup stage (Tremblant was cancelled due to weather, meaning Moltzan missed no competitions while her shoulder was recovering), she matched her career high in the discipline again.
Her self-described most-surprising race came a month later in Kronplatz, Italy. After the first round of giant slalom, Moltzan ranked 10th, a respectable effort heading into the second run, with a chance to break through for another successful giant slalom effort.
She then proceeded to complete her second run of giant slalom at lightning speed, posting the second-fastest time of the day and finishing third for her first giant slalom World Cup podium. Moltzan had gone from no top-five finishes in the discipline to two fifth-place finishes and a podium in giant slalom just a couple months into the World Cup season.
Moltzan, who reached her first World Cup podium in 2021, still is seeking her first outright win on the tour. But her past season brought immense improvement to her standing amid the World Cup rankings, giving Moltzan a confidence boost that she belongs at the top.
You have to wholeheartedly believe that you belong on the top. As a human, it's pretty hard to convince yourself of that. Once you have the results, you belong in that position. Not that I think I'm the best in the world right now, but I think there's opportunity for me to grow to be the best in the world.
As the season progressed, Moltzan's mental fortitude enabled her to maintain strong results. For the giant slalom races, she made a slight equipment change at the beginning of the year that helped hone her physical skills. She had a good offseason the previous summer and got stronger, but an injury in the fall halted physical progression before the season. Despite the setback, her new setup, combined with her strong mental game, paved the way for success.
Moltzan proved her growth by placing as a top international technical skier at the 2025 Alpine Skiing World Championships.
Moltzan placed fourth in three of her four races at Saalbach: the team combined with Lauren Macuga, the team parallel and the slalom (Moltzan finished 0.02 seconds from slalom medal contention and was the fastest American in the competition). But in her improved discipline, the giant slalom, Moltzan soared once more, snagging her first-ever individual world championships medal by finishing third in the event.
Shocked, but refreshed to obtain newfound success at age 30, she felt reinforced by her success across the board at the world championships.
“It's obviously pretty annoying to get three fourth places, because then you just miss a medal three times, right? But at the same time, I have to be grateful for it, because you have to check out the progress from one year to the next, and my previous world champs or Olympic experience, I had never been that consistent, that successful,” Moltzan said.
She finished a career-high 12th in the overall World Cup rankings thanks to her first season with multiple podiums: two third-place finishes in the slalom and one in the giant slalom.
After the season, Moltzan finally underwent shoulder surgery on Apr. 2, which she rehabbed to full strength by the middle of July. Rehabilitation from the injury allowed Moltzan to slow down during the offseason, giving her some needed time off from life as an athlete to focus on family life. At the beginning of July, she and her husband, Ryan Mooney, bought their first house in Vermont, the state where the couple both went to school at the University of Vermont.
The couple opted to be picky with the selection of their first house. Actively looking for two and a half years in an intense housing market, they landed on a place in their dream area of Vermont. They moved during a lighter training week in Moltzan's offseason recovery, serving as a nice distraction before the big offseason began.
"I couldn't imagine trying to move during an intense week. I don't think I would have survived," Moltzan said, jokingly.
Finally settled into their new home, Moltzan can enjoy the offseason and get right back to work for the next season. The 2024-25 World Cup season provided Moltzan with a strong foundation to build upon, with her top goal for the upcoming season simply being to win on the international stage, regardless of the event.
But Moltzan's own goals go beyond a single win. She strives to be the best consistent skier she can be throughout an entire season, which can result in things like Crystal Globes.
"Everyone wants to talk about the Olympics, because it's an Olympic year, and for the general public, it is the most important event," said Moltzan. "I think winning an Olympic medal is incredible, but it's a one-off event, whereas a Globe is showing consistency and success through an entire season."
As a technical skier, Moltzan has skied almost all her events with her teammate Shiffrin in the competition mix since they both were young teenagers. She sees Shiffrin as an equal in the space, sharing knowledge and motivating each other throughout their ever-changing relationship as teammates.
"I am not in a position where I think I could ever achieve any sort of stats she has, but I can find my own success in my own way," Moltzan said. "I think even seeing her break these boundaries inspires me to reach these new boundaries."
She thinks Shiffrin gets "buried" by the media side of her success, wishing people would focus on the human side of her teammate, like her fun personality as a teammate. It's these aspects that allow Moltzan to focus on her own success rather than making comparisons; to her, Mikaela is Mikaela.
This summer, Moltzan is pulling motivation from her competitors who are working hard to become stronger in the offseason. She aims to chip away at the small things, using the foundation she takes pride in from the past season to stay on the path to becoming the best.
To be the best in the world is a huge task. I'm never going to be Mikaela Shiffrin, and I'm never going to have 100 wins. But in this coming season, I could be the best slalom skier, the best GS skier, and for me that starts at the first race and finding a lot of consistency.
From June to July, Moltzan worked in a strength block to build as much power as she could before introducing a hybrid of endurance and strength training. Moltzan returned to the snow following shoulder surgery on Aug. 11 with a training camp in New Zealand, saying in July she plans on taking it slow to build up her flow before ramping up training later in the offseason.
As the Winter Games creep closer, Moltzan is excited for the new courses at the Tofane Alpine Ski Centre, where the courses for the technical race will be steeper and more intense than the previous women's courses at the 2021 Alpine Skiing World Championships held in Cortina.
"I think it's nice to throw some good competition out there and make athletes work," Moltzan said about the course.
A strong season gives Moltzan the passion and fuel to have a successful training camp, as she hopes to stick around the top of the slalom and giant slalom rankings at the international level in the prime of her career.