CORTINA D’AMPEZZO, Italy — Team USA’s Jackie Wiles and Paula Moltzan earned bronze in the Olympic debut of the women’s team combined event Tuesday at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Center. Teammates Breezy Johnson and Mikaela Shiffrin narrowly missed the podium in fourth after leading the downhil l.  Austrian’s Ariane Raedler and Katharina Huber won gold with a combined time of 2 minutes and 21.66 seconds,  Germany earned silver as Emma Aicher’s slalom run paired with Kira Weidle-Winkelmann’s sixth-place downhill, giving Aicher her second silver medal of the week, following her success in the downhill event on Sunday. Tuesday morning around 9 a.m. at the Tofane Alpine Skiing Center in Cortina d’Ampezzo looked a lot more like a 3 p.m. après, with the spectators of the women’s team combined crawling to the finish corral early to watch the action. Now four days into the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympic Games, it seems the only thing getting people to these early alpine skiing events is a little hair of the dog.  Tuesday morning’s crowds grew throughout the day. The 2026 Milano Cortina mascot, Tina, poses with spectators supporting Team Canada. Credit: Klara Meyer/Park Record Spectators lounged in beach chairs pressed into the snow, beer in one hand, cigarette in the other, as Sandstorm played on an endless loop through the speakers. Either nursing a hangover or leaning into it, the crowd stretched out for a sun-soaked nap before snapping to attention for the downhill start at 10:30. This is the Olympic debut of the women’s team combined, a new event designed to pair speed and technical specialists into two-woman teams. One skier races downhill, the other races slalom later in the day and the fastest combined time gets the gold.  It replaces the old individual combined, long criticized for forcing specialists into events they rarely raced.  The International Ski and Snowboard Federation, better known as FIS, president Johan Eliasch said, “The problem we had with Alpine combined was that we had slalom skiers that looked like Bambi on ice in the downhill track and the others looking like they need a compass to get through the slalom course and very few that could actually do both. This is the opposite. We have the best of the best in the best possible form.” The event made its first appearance at the 2025 World Championships in Saalbach last February, where Mikaela Shiffrin and Breezy Johnson won gold.  The downhill Clouds clung to the jagged tops of the Tofane peaks, closing in on the start house as the broadcast followed skiers through the foggy first section of the Tofane course. But the finish corral sat under the bright heat of the sun, and the crowd outside stood waving their arms in synchronized waves and shouting themselves hoarse as the skiers flew toward them. Tuesday’s announcer quizzes Italian teens about whom they are cheering for in the team combined. All four who spoke said they couldn’t wait to see Breezy Johnson and Mikaela Shiffrin. Credit: Klara Meyer/Park Record Here, the Olympic spirit transcended nations as Italian teenagers openly declared their allegiance to Johnson and Shiffrin over the loudspeakers, and only after a few hand gestures from the Italian adults around them did they remember to shoutout Italy’s Sofia Goggia, the bronze medalist in Sunday’s downhill, and Laura Pirovano, who ended Tuesday’s downhill portion in third.   When Wiles, the first American of the day, launched from the start, a sea of American flags followed, blanketing the seated section in red, white and blue as the crowd stood to watch her run.  USA speed skier Jacqueline Wiles takes the final jump above the finish of the downhill portion of women’s combined event. Her slalom sking partner was Paula Moltzan. Credit: David Jackson/ Park Record Both Wiles and Moltzan arrived at the team combined carrying unfinished business. Wiles was coming off a fourth-place finish in Sunday’s downhill, just a fraction of a second off the podium, while Moltzan had narrowly missed a medal in last year’s team event at the World Championships.  So, returning for revenge on Tuesday, Wiles’s chaotic run drew gasps at every curve and audible exhales through every landing as she fought to keep it together, skiing on the edge through to the finish line.  “After Sunday, I want redemption. We’re both in that mindset that we really want this, and we know that we can be there, and so it’s fun. We both want revenge and redemption,” said Wiles.  Paired with Moltzan, Wiles’s fearlessness placed them in serious medal contention ahead of the slalom skier’s run.  “She joked about how she gets nervous watching me because I get a little wild, and I feel the same about her, which is funny. There were a couple times when I got loose, and I knew she was freaking out because I was midair flailing. It was a blast to ski today, and I’m really looking forward to watching her later,” said Wiles.  Then, as Johnson entered the start house, the crowd stood cheering for her through the finish, snapping their gaze between the broadcast clock and the hill in a panicked kind of focus to see where she stood at each split, roaring as she came into the lead on the upper section of the track. Breezy Johnson in the finish area after skiing her portion of the downhill in the combined event of the Milano Cortina Olympics. She handed her partner, Mikaela Shiffrin, a first-place finish. Credit: David Jackson/ Park Record Johnson crossed the line in 1:36.59, just six hundredths of a second ahead of Austria’s Raedler, instantly taking the downhill lead and putting teammate Shiffrin in prime position for the slalom. “I’ve always kind of been pretty good at the bottom,” Johnson said. “It’s about carrying speed and pressing the terrain. Once I got partway down, I was like, ‘Let’s have some fun. Let’s ski relaxed and free.’” That dynamic brought together two sides of the U.S. ski team that rarely overlap. Ahead of the downhill, speed and technical skiers met together, trading encouragement and blending chants and pre-race traditions. Wiles said the speed team’s chant, started by Park City’s Lauren Macuga, more affectionately known by the team as “Cugs,” carried into the joint meeting, alongside the slalom team’s own hype-up chant. Team USA’s Bella Wright skied out of the course at the fourth gate, the same spot where teammate Lindsey Vonn broke her leg on Sunday, and was unable to complete the course.  Team USA supporters made up more than 23% of the crowd at the team combined on Tuesday, according to the commentators. Italians tied for 23% of the crowd, and Germany was the third most represented nation among the spectators. Credit: Klara Meyer/Park Record Though unhurt, the run disqualified teammate Nina O’Brien from skiing the slalom course in the afternoon — what Wright said is the biggest disappointment of the day and challenge with the team combined.  “It just happened so quick, but those two turns that I did do today felt better than ever. It felt more like me, more like my skiing and aggressive. And so I have to just take that,” said Wright. “I felt a lot more free, a lot more ready to ski like myself. I was so confident that Nina would go full bore. So that’s definitely a bummer. Hopefully we can do it again next year together. I would love that.”  Wright celebrated her birthday on Tuesday, and the crowd sang her a happy birthday song as she made her way to the stands. Italian Goggia suffered a similar fate at the top of the course where she fell and slid on the upper section on her hip. She was uninjured but felt for her teammate, Lara Della Mea, who was unable to ski the slalom as a result.  “She was going to run the slalom with me, and I took her chance to do it. So this is my responsibility and my fault, but at the same time, I’m glad I’m out of this crash without any injury and I am healthy,” said Goggia.  Goggia skied the length of the course after her fall, taking the final jump, letting her home crowd see her ski, even if she would not continue through the event. Goggia took the bronze in the women’s downhill Sunday and said the events of the day pulled a lot of her focus ahead of Tuesday’s.  “Mentally was really hard to deal with the day of Sunday, it took really lot of mental energy, and I felt today, at the start, I didn’t have the same tension or the same focus I had on Sunday. I was focused on the race, but inside of myself, I felt I was not so charged up,” she said.  The slalom By early afternoon, the downhill nerves of panicked whispers were replaced with the louder and loose energy of slalom. The sharp clack of plastic gates snapping behind each skier joined a chorus of “oohs and aahs” with every turn in the gates, regardless of country or rank, people watched the slalom leg with gusto.  The snow had softened into corny, slushy piles after a morning of sun, spraying salty chunks of ice outward with every aggressive edge set. There were eight Did Not Finish (DNFs) in the second run of the team combined, joining the two in downhill.  USA’s AJ Hurt brought her downhill teammate Keeley Cashman’s 21st place finish up to 15th. At the bottom, Cashman rushed into her arms and wrapped her in an eagle-printed skirt as they briefly took the lead with a combined time of 2 minutes and 24.90 seconds.  The Italian emcee whipped the venue into chaos, leading a hopping imitation of slalom turns that dissolved instantly into disarray as people jumped side to side. When Moltzan’s name flashed on the screen, a USA chant rippled through the stands. The noise grew as she tipped on her edges, and when she crossed just two-tenths of a second behind Germany’s Aicher, the collective response was a loud, guttural oof as she slid the team into third place. With Shiffrin still to race, the hope for a podium remained, but as Wiles said, it would take a miracle.  “We were asking for a miracle,” Wiles said. “And honestly, I think we were delivered one. If you let Mikaela run that course 10 times, she probably wins most of them.” After the ceremony, the entire U.S. team gathered in a tight circle as one stubborn group of Americans remained in the stands, shouting their support as Moltzan and Wiles celebrated below.  USA speed skier Jacqueline Wiles signs for the camera after skiing her downhill leg of the women’s combined Olympic event in Cortina, Italy. Credit: David Jackson/ Park Record Tuesday was a great day for Team USA, said Shiffrin, and a reflection of where the U.S. team stands and how much inspiration she drew from watching her teammate deliver under pressure. “I was so excited watching Breezy this morning. What an incredible downhill run,” Shiffrin said. “After winning gold two days ago, going through 48 hours of media and craziness, and then coming out and backing it up with another beautiful run where she was going for it, not protecting anything.” Shiffrin said Johnson’s mindset shaped her own approach heading into the slalom, just to give her all and leave it all out there on the course.  “We got to watch Paula and Jackie receive their medal — they earned that. There’s so much sweet about the day,” said Shiffrin.  The team dynamic, where, as Shiffrin put it, your race forces you to ski for someone else, was something Shiffrin said brought out a different kind of motivation. “When you’re skiing with somebody, for someone, it’s a different feeling,” she said. “You want to do well for them. And in my experience, that’s usually when I see my best skiing. Watching Breezy this morning, I was like, ‘This is why we’re doing this.’” Johnson said the loss didn’t diminish what the day represented.  “You’re holding someone else’s Olympic dream in your hand,” Johnson said. “But you also don’t have to do it alone.” She added: “Paula really stepped it up today. We came in with an 11-person team, and only two athletes had Olympic medals coming in. Now we’ve already doubled that. We have five people on this team with Olympic medals, and I don’t think this is the end.” Paula Moltzan races the final pitch of her bronze winning run on Tuesday. Credit: David Jackson/ Park Record For Moltzan and Wiles, while the sisterhood of the U.S. women’s team is a massive foundation of support for each of them, it remains that they are competitors. And watching Shiffrin come down was stressful as their hopes for a medal remained.   “She’s an incredible skier,” Moltzan said. “Most of the time, she’s unbeatable. We wanted the medal, and yeah, it was stressful.” Wiles said the bronze still felt surreal, especially after the disappointment of Sunday’s downhill. “I feel like I’m going to wake up from a dream at some point,” she said. “Sunday was tough. But that’s life. I’m just grateful I was here skiing.” Wiles and Moltzan have known each other for nearly 17 years, dating back to national development camps as teenagers. “That’s kind of the coolest part,” Wiles said. “Joining forces and doing this together, fulfilling those childhood dreams.” The post Wiles, Moltzan take bronze in team combined appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less