Noelle Pikus Pace talks 2026 Olympics and the skeleton controversy that cost an American a spot in the Games

Twelve years after she stood on the podium at the 2014 Sochi Olympics to receive her silver medal, Noelle Pikus Pace still buzzes with excitement when talking about the Games.

No longer competing herself, Pace now enjoys the Olympics as a fan.

“Anytime we get to come together and watch the Olympic Games, it’s always a great day, a great year,” Pace said.

The two-time Olympian loves learning the athletes’ stories and what they’ve overcome to reach their Olympic moment.

“To hear the trials and the setbacks and the resilience and the grit and the many, many times that they’ve had to overcome challenges in order to get to where they are, I think that’s really where the human connection comes from, is knowing that they are doing hard things. This has not been an easy road for any of them,” she said.

Pace thinks that’s what makes viewers at home connect with the Olympians they’re watching.

“To know, that relatable moment when you’re like, ‘Yeah, I’ve been through hard times, too,’ and man, they are pushing through at the most elite level. I can get through today. I can make the best of this week,” she said.

The Deseret News caught up with Pace to discuss the athletes she’s most excited to watch in the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics and to get her thoughts on this year’s skeleton competition, including the controversy between the U.S. and Canada.

Noelle Pikus Pace’s must-watch Olympians

Pace has a lot of love for the Utah athletes competing in the Olympics.

“Obviously, first and foremost, I’m so excited to cheer on all those from our home state of Utah,” she said. “Even if I don’t know them personally, it always brings that connection when you’re like, oh my gosh, they’re from Park City or from Salt Lake or from Kaysville or somewhere. Whenever they’re from Utah, it’s always fun to cheer them on.”

The first athlete Pace said she was excited to watch was Ashley Farquharson, who won bronze Tuesday and became the second American woman to medal in the women’s singles luge.

“She started out when she was, I think, 11 years old and has just been sliding for years and years,” Pace said. “It’s just fun to see her being able to compete at this elite level and to see that commitment and dedication shine through.”

Pace, who released her latest book “No Excuses” on Amazon Thursday, also has a lot of support for the moms on the U.S. bobsled and skeleton teams.

“In skeleton and bobsled, there are at least three moms competing, which I think is so cool, so powerful, to show that you can still chase after big dreams, chase after big things in your life with kids by your side and be a great mom as well,” she said. “And all of them are great moms.”

Pace reached the pinnacle of her career — her Olympic silver medal — as the mother of two young children. She’s excited to cheer on fellow moms Kelly Curtis, a two-time Olympian, in the skeleton and Elana Myers Taylor and Kaylee Humphries on the U.S. bobsled team.

“Elana Myers Taylor, she’s been sliding for a long time, and we were teammates and friends ... and we still are. She’s just a rock star. She has her two boys traveling with her,” Pace said.

She’s also excited to watch American skeleton athlete Mystique Ro and bobsledder Kaysha Love from Herriman, Utah.

“Another bobsledder that I think we’re all just cheering on, especially here from our hometown of Utah, is Kaysha Love. So it’s exciting to see what she’s been doing, hitting those World Championship marks and to come back and we get to see her shine,” Pace said. “I think any one of those athletes can really hit those top spots at the Games, so it’ll be fun.”

Pace’s perspective on the Canadian skeleton controversy

On Jan. 11, the Canadian skeleton team created a scandal that cost an American a spot in what would have been her sixth Olympics, as the Deseret News previously reported.

American Katie Uhlaender won last month’s Lake Placid North American Cup, and under normal circumstances, it would have been enough for Uhlaender to punch a ticket to the Olympics.

But because four Canadian skeleton athletes were pulled from the competition pool, the event’s points decreased by a quarter. Even though Uhlaender won the race, she came up 18 points shy of qualifying for the Olympics.

That would have been enough points for Uhlaender to compete in the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics if all 23 athletes competed in Lake Placid.

Pace called the incident “unfortunate.”

“Hopefully moving forward from here, there will be better ways to guard against athletes dropping out so that other athletes aren’t punished because of it,” she said. “I hope that the rules are looked at and that things change from here going out, but my heart goes out to Katie Uhlaender for what she’s experiencing and this loss of being at the Games because of it. It’s heartbreaking.”

Pace knows what it’s like to be so close to Olympic glory but still fall short. In 2005, Pace, the defending World Cup champion, was on track for making the team for the 2006 Torino Olympics but was hit by a bobsled and severely injured.

Pace recovered and returned to competition seven weeks after breaking two bones, but the U.S. hadn’t won enough points to secure a second spot in the Olympics for Pace.

“To be so close and miss out and to feel powerless against it when you’re putting everything in that you can possibly do, giving your absolute best, showing up at the races, and then for it to not be enough,” she said. “When your best isn’t enough, even though given a different ruling, given different jurisdictions or things like that, that you could very well be there, that’s tough to hear and to experience.”

Pace experienced her own injustices and witnessed similar manipulation in the sport.

“It’s sports at the elite level. There’s always bound to be challenges and protests and rules that don’t go in your favor. There’s always bound to be that, and yes, I experienced a handful of those and they were some of the hardest days of my life,” she said.

In 2013, Pace was disqualified after winning a World Cup race for having too much tape on her sled’s handle. She filed and argued the ruling, but still to this day, she doesn’t understand how or why it happened.

“It’s a difficult thing to experience, a very, very difficult thing to know that you’ve been giving your absolute best and that there are just walls in your way that you can’t move past,” she said.

But some good can come from those experiences, according to Pace.

“There are people that come out of the woodwork that will stand by your side and you see the good as well. So there’s opposition in all things, right? There’s always going to be those challenges, but on the back side of that, there’s always greatness that comes through as well.

“And you see a lot of good and a lot of people that are just wanting the best for sport, wanting the best for you as an individual, and that’s such a blessing as well.”

Does Pace miss the thrill of skeleton?

Pace’s Olympics experience has changed since she competed in the 2014 Winter Games.

“It’s a sense of relief to be able to sit on my couch and watch,” she said. “It’s a sense of relief to just be able to cheer them on, but to also understand what they’re going through.”

But she’s not fully removed from the Olympics. Twelve years later, she still receives texts and emails from Olympians in various sports asking for advice and what they should expect at the Winter Games.

Looking back, Pace has immense gratitude for her experiences at the Olympics.

“I’m just grateful that I gave it my best, that I didn’t settle for less than my best, that I can sit on that couch with no regrets as I watch now, that I don’t have any regrets about how I performed or any thoughts about going back. I’m very happy with my career and happy to be done,” she said.

Though she has no regrets, she does “definitely miss the thrill of sliding,” she said.

“There’s nothing like skeleton racing. From the outside, it looks like chaos and pandemonium, and people think that we have a death wish.”

That’s not how it felt for Pace.

“But to me, skeleton racing was always like a dance. It was always rhythmic and timing and flow, and it felt like freedom. It was graceful, and it’s something that I’ll never experience again, but I do, when I watch it, I do still feel those emotions that come with it.”

In November, Pace took her four children to Park City to watch the World Cup trials. Her youngest sons, 10-year-old twins, were born after she retired, and they hadn’t ever watched a live skeleton race before.

“My 10-year-old boys saw it for the first time, and they’re like, ‘Oh my gosh, Mom, this is what you did? I didn’t even see them go by. I blinked and they were gone,’ and they were just like wide-eyed and so excited. And I was like, ‘Wow, I can’t believe I’ve waited this long to actually show you what this sport is.’” she said.

But before that happened, there was what Pace described as a bad mom moment.

She woke her kids up and told them to wear warm clothes because they were going to Park City.

“One of my 10-year-olds was like, ‘Wait, mom, is skeleton indoors or outdoors?’ I was like, ‘Oh my gosh. He totally just asked that. Oh, it’s outdoors, buddy. It’s outdoors,’” she said.

Regardless, the race won Pace some cool mom points with her kids. They even tried — unsuccessfully — to get her to come out of retirement.

“They wanted me to go down the track and I was like, ‘(I’m) good watching.’”