US team. GEPA pictures.
MERIBEL, France — The United States edged defending champion Norway 3-2 in the final to win the team event at the Alpine skiing world championships on Tuesday.
American resilience and a never-give-up attitude following a series of physical and mental challenges paid off for Nina O’Brien, Tommy Ford, Paula Moltzan and River Radamus at the skiing world championships on Tuesday — all the way to gold in the team event.
North America won gold and bronze in the mixed team parallel. In a fun event to watch, the Stifel US Alpine Team earned their first-ever medal, which is gold. Canada continued their stellar World Championships, beating Austria to earn bronze. One of the prerace favorites, Norway, earned silver.
The small final showcased Canada versus one of the prerace favorites, Austria. Canada had beaten Slovenia and Switzerland to get to the semifinals, where they lost to the US. However, they rebounded in the final to tie the Austrians two to two in points but beat them in the tiebreaker of combined time of the best woman and man from each team.
Today’s parallel racing medal matches were not decided until the last run. In the USA vs Norway gold medal final, the last pair was the favored Timon Haugan vs. Tommy Ford. Haugan nearly fell leaving the start and Ford skied clean to the finish to capture gold for the USA.
Before the final pair, the teams were tied at 2 points each. The US team had to defeat Poland, Italy, and Canada to get to the big final. Ford ended the day, winning two of his four pairings and Radamus also won two of his four pairings, each contributing two points during the event. After losing her first pairing against Poland, Nina O’Brien won her next three to contribute three points during the competition. Paula Moltzan was the team’s biggest contributor, winning three and tying one, earning a whole point in every round.
“I felt really good about our team and knew we were skiing fast, but I think anything can happen in parallel. So, there’s really no expectations ever, but I’m really proud of everyone on our team and happy that I got to be a part of it,” said O’Brien.
Moltzan competed for most of last season with a broken left hand, while Radamus kept on pushing after just missing the podium with three fourth-place results at big events — in giant slalom and the team event in Beijing and again in combined at worlds last week.
The four Americans teamed up to edge defending champion Norway 3-2 in the final and each earn their first senior-level gold medal.
“We’ve all gone through the ringer a bit,” Ford said. “We heal up and we can still ski and really I’m grateful to be here, and I think everyone else is, too.”
Ford won the final, decisive run when Timon Haugan got stuck in the start.
“I didn’t see him out of the corner of my eye,” Ford said. “I knew he was fast, so I was just like, something must have happened. But I wasn’t going to let up at all.”
His teammate, Radamus said, “It’s my first medal. I haven’t had the success I’ve wanted to on the World Cup level, but to have it in my first event as a team makes it even more special to me.”
Moltzan broke her left hand again in her final run, damaging three fingers.
“Paula gave absolutely everything on that run. It was pretty inspiring,” Radamus said. “And then for Tommy to have to clutch up in the end there, I think he’s so steady, always so even keel, doesn’t let the moment get to him. And he was able to execute and perform there, which is really cool.”
O’Brien won the opening heat of the final against Kristin Lysdahl.
“Being here at the world championships was a big goal of mine,” O’Brien said. “But getting to celebrate and share today with our team is just something special I never expected.”
Alexander Steen Olsen of Norway narrowly edged Radamus.
“I really buy into this team event,” said Radamus, who won a combined five golds at the Youth Olympics and the junior worlds. “From an outsider’s perspective, ski racing is an individual sport, but to me it’s all about team.
“Tommy and Nina and Paula — I’m on the road with them all year round, and especially as Americans in a European-dominated sport, we spend a lot of time together over here,” Radamus added. “So everything I do is because they are motivating me and pushing me to do it. And so to be able to celebrate like this together is so special to me.”
Moltzan has been on the podium in slalom this season, O’Brien placed 10th in the final giant slalom before worlds and Jett Seymour achieved an almost unheard-of seventh-place finish in World Cup slalom with the No. 59 bib 10 days ago — then followed that up by winning a second-tier Europa Cup slalom by nearly a full second.
“Everybody is fired up and has a lot of confidence,” U.S. Alpine director Patrick Riml said. “So we’ll see what’s going to happen next. We got a strong team.”
“There is a unique energy in succeeding as a team; today, that energy was evident at the finish. Mixed team parallel is fun and easy to understand and today it was exciting to the last pairing.”
Round-by-round results of the Meribel 2023 mixed team parallel World Championship
Round of 16
Switzerland vs. Latvia
Canada vs. Slovenia
Stifel US Alpine Team vs. Poland
Itay vs. Czech Republic
Norway vs. Belgium
France vs. Slovakia
Germany vs. Sweden
Austria vs. Denmark
Round of eight
Switzerland vs. Canada
Stifel US Alpine Team vs. Italy
Norway vs. France
Germany vs. Austria
Round of four
Canada vs. Stifel US Alpine Team
Norway vs. Austria
Small final bronze medal match
Canada vs. Austria
Big final gold medal match
Stifel US Alpine Team vs. Norway
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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