CORTINA d’AMPEZZO, Italy — Aurora’s Jackie Wiles rocketed down Olimpia delle Tofane Mountain, reaching speeds of 79 miles per hour in likely the last event of her third and final Olympics. The 33-year-old’s red skis glided under her blue-and-white suit with a matching blue vest and the number 8 across her stomach.
For a brief moment, everything felt normal again. A 13-year professional career featuring some of her best runs had already taken place at this same course, and Wiles knew another such run was materializing in the moment.
“I was firing on all cylinders,” she said.
Two days earlier, Wiles posted her best-ever Olympic finish, just barely missing the podium after finishing fourth. The emotions of skiing so well yet coming up milliseconds short of an Olympic medal had her in tears. But as she continued her run on Tuesday morning, she forced herself to block Sunday’s pain out.
As she zipped down Olimpia delle Tofane for a new two-person team event that combines one skier’s downhill score with the other’s slalom run, it was like that heartbreak never happened. One minute, 37 seconds and 4 milliseconds later, she cleared the finish line.
“I was really skiing fast at the start and I finished well,” she said. “I would have liked to do a couple things better, but overall I’m proud of that run.”
Two hours later, Wiles stood at the bottom of the mountain with an American flag in hand as teammate Paula Moltzan took to the starting gate out of plain sight. Wiles turned to a giant screen broadcasting the top of the mountain and watched as the Minneapolis-raised Moltzan cleared her slalom run in a respectable 44.84 seconds.
In pure irony, both Wiles and Moltzan finished in fourth place in their respective events Tuesday. On their own, they’d both have fallen one spot short of the podium, identical to Wiles on Sunday. But together, their combined scores on Tuesday earned the duo a third-place bronze medal.
“Jackie really set us up in a great spot,” Moltzan said, “and it feels surreal to say we’re Olympic medalists.”
Skiing sixth overall, the first of four Americans on Tuesday, Wiles cruised through the first and second sections of the legendary mile and a half course, known in alpine skiing as one of the most challenging in the world. But just like on Sunday, she lost ground Tuesday in the winding third section while attempting to slow down. Nearly a half-second behind Italian Laura Pirovano’s pace, Wiles regained her momentum to finish within three tenths of a second off Pirovano’s lead.
Tuesday’s team pairs format, the first in Olympic history to combine slalom and downhill, meant a strong run from Moltzan could put the two on the podium. Moltzan, the fourth-to-last slalom skier, met the moment and catapulted the duo to second place with three skiers left.
Italy’s Martina Peterlini went next and was disqualified for veering outside one of the gates. Then, Austria’s Katharina Huber delivered a career-best run to put her and teammate Ariana Radler in the top spot, moving Wiles and Moltzan down to third. The Portland native’s medal hopes came down to the very last slalom skier on Tuesday: a fellow American and arguably the greatest alpine skier of all time in Mikaela Shiffrin.
Partnered with Sunday’s downhill Olympic champion Breezy Johnson, Shiffrin needed just an average run by her lofty standards to secure the gold medal and push the Wiles-Moltzan pairing to fourth. Shiffrin’s record 71 slalom championships on the world stage suggested that Wiles would yet again be on the outside looking in during Tuesday’s medal ceremony.
Instead, Shiffrin stumbled through an uncharacteristically slow run, finishing 14th of all slalom skiers. The lackluster run dropped her and Johnson, who finished first in the downhill, to fourth place overall behind Wiles and Moltzan.
“It’s a competitive sport. They’re our friends but at the end of the day they’re our competitors,” Wiles said. “Mikaela is usually unbeatable. We were asking for a miracle because we wanted a medal.”
“If you let Mikaela run that course, 99 out of 100 times she’ll come out with a lead.”
Shiffrin, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, said she was disappointed with Tuesday’s run, but also happy for Wiles and Moltzan.
“They definitely deserved it,” she said. “Jackie was amazing and Paula was really solid. They were the better team and that’s why they’re wearing medals today instead of us.”
After fighting through tears on Sunday and “not sleeping well” over the next 36 hours, Wiles wore a toothy grin during her media availability on Tuesday. A royal-blue lanyard across her neck held a bronze medal resting on the chest of her white Team USA jacket.
What a difference a couple of days makes.
“This is a feeling I’ll never forget,” she said. “I’m beyond honored to be skiing for my country, my family and friends, and just to share this with Paula is a dream.”
Wiles will compete in Super-G on Thursday morning at 11:30 a.m. in Cortina (2:30 a.m. in Portland).
