Portland skier Jacqueline Wiles wins first Olympic medal with Paula Moltzan in women’s team combined

A new Olympic format produces an unexpected U.S. podium in Cortina d’Ampezzo

Portland-born alpine skier Jacqueline “Jackie” Wiles won her first Olympic medal on Feb. 10, 2026, capturing bronze with teammate Paula Moltzan in the inaugural women’s team combined event at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games. The result delivered a breakthrough for Wiles after multiple Olympic appearances without a podium finish, and it added a U.S. medal in a discipline designed to fuse speed and technical skiing into a single team outcome.

The women’s team combined pairs two athletes from the same nation: one competes a downhill run and the other a slalom run, with the combined time determining the final standings. Wiles handled the downhill leg for the American bronze-medal entry, while Moltzan skied the slalom leg to secure the podium position.

How the medals were decided

Austria’s Ariane Rädler and Katharina Huber won gold with a combined time of 2:21.66. Germany’s Kira Weidle-Winkelmann and Emma Aicher took silver in 2:21.71. Wiles and Moltzan finished third in 2:21.91, earning bronze as one of the tightest clusters of medal times in the event’s first Olympic edition.

• Gold: Austria — Ariane Rädler / Katharina Huber (2:21.66)
• Silver: Germany — Kira Weidle-Winkelmann / Emma Aicher (2:21.71)
• Bronze: United States — Jacqueline Wiles / Paula Moltzan (2:21.91)

Redemption after narrowly missing a medal

Wiles entered the team combined just two days after finishing fourth in the women’s downhill on Feb. 8, missing the podium by 0.27 seconds over a course measuring roughly 2.6 kilometers. That downhill race was won by American Breezy Johnson in 1:36.10, with Aicher second and Italy’s Sofia Goggia third.

The back-to-back schedule underscored the volatility of alpine racing at the Olympic level, where fractions of a second can separate fourth place from a medal.

Who Wiles and Moltzan are

Wiles, born in Portland on July 13, 1992, is a speed-event specialist who has raced in multiple Olympic Games and has produced World Cup downhill podium finishes during her career. Moltzan, born in Lakeville, Minnesota, on April 7, 1994, has built her résumé primarily in slalom and giant slalom and entered the Games with major championship credentials, including world medals.

For both athletes, the Feb. 10 bronze marked a first Olympic medal—an outcome shaped by the event’s team structure and by execution across two distinct alpine disciplines on the Olympic stage.