The unbreakable Mollie Jepsen: Para alpine skiing star ready for Milano Cortina

TORONTO – If Mollie Jepsen called it a day after two Paralympic Games, she could easily trumpet a magnificent career in sport.

Through more than her fair share of injuries and illness, the 26-year-old from West Vancouver has collected six Paralympic medals in her first two Games appearances, with two of each colour.

When you look at the challenges she’s surmounted in her career, it is amazing that she intends to lock herself in the starting gate at Milano Cortina 2026. After competing at Beijing 2022, she was sidelined until late last season undergoing three knee surgeries and an elbow surgery.

She made a triumphant return to the slopes in March, winning bronze in the women’s standing giant slalom at the World Cup finals in Veysonnaz, Switzerland.

“For me, coming back in March was huge,” said Jepsen. “I felt like it was a big team effort. I got a lot of support from a lot of people.

‘’I just really knew I needed to get that last band aid ripped off.”

The Para alpine skiing star made her Paralympic debut back in 2018 and burst onto the international stage in spectacular fashion. At age 18, she won gold in the combined, took silver in slalom, bronze in both downhill and giant slalom, and fourth in the super-G in the women’s standing category.

Over the next quadrennial, her battles with illness and injury began. In September 2018 she was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. She spent six weeks in and out of hospital and missed the 2018-19 season. She returned to competition in January 2020.

At the 2022 Paralympic Winter Games in Beijing, it was as if almost nothing had happened in the previous four years as she captured gold in the downhill and silver in the giant slalom. She even carried the flag for Canada at the Closing Ceremony.

After those Games, knee surgeries kept her out of the following three seasons. Jepsen was scheduled to return earlier in 2024-25 but it was in October that she broke her elbow and her wrist, her first fracture injuries. They affected her more than she anticipated.

‘’The comeback this season was more of a mental battle than I expected,” Jepsen said. ‘’I was unfamiliar with what a rehab looked like when you break bones. When you come back on snow two months after, the trauma is still fresh.

‘’At first I was even scared to get on the chairlift. But the competitive feeling came back, and I never really doubted that that would be the case. But you never know after three years out when it was only meant to be one.

“I was happy that I was back into being that person I knew I could be, and I’d done all the steps I needed to be able to get there.’’

Since she was 13, Jepsen knew alpine skiing wasn’t just a pastime but ultimately her calling.

“I knew then that I was going to go (to the Games) and I was going to do well,’’ she said. “It wasn’t a question of if – it was when?”

She comes from a skiing family, but the racing scene was new territory for everyone.

‘’My family is passionate about the sport, but I am the first ski racer,’’ said Jepsen. ‘’It’s been a learning journey for all of us but I’m grateful it’s something we can share together.”

After the pandemic restrictions at the 2022 Games, Jepsen is thrilled her family will get to see her race at one of the Meccas of the sport in Cortina this upcoming March.

‘’There were times I didn’t think I would make it to a third Paralympic Games, I was struggling so much,” she recalled. ‘’This time I just want to make everybody around me happy. I want to make everyone proud of the work they put into me and proud of my results as well.

‘’For this season, I’m really looking to just make myself proud, whatever that looks like, and have a lot of fun along the way of what has been a tumultuous journey.”