Tommy Moe


Thomas Sven "Tommy" Moe is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from the United States. An Olympic gold and silver medalist in 1994, he specialized in the speed events of downhill and super G.

Early years

Born in Missoula, Montana, Moe learned to ski and race at The Big Mountain near Whitefish, where his father was a member of the ski patrol. Moe refined his skills as a teenager in Alaska at Alyeska, near Anchorage, where he attended the Glacier Creek Ski Academy. He joined the U.S. Ski Team in 1986 at age 16.

Racing career

Moe made his World Cup debut at 17 and days before he turned 19, competed at the 1989 World Championships in Vail, Colorado, where he placed 12th in the downhill competition. He earned his first World Cup points in March 1990 with a 13th-place finish at Åre, Sweden, the 1990 season's final race.
In a surprising performance in 1994 Winter Olympics at Lillehammer, Norway, Moe became the first American male ski racer to win two medals in a single Winter Olympics, with a gold in the downhill and silver in the super-G at Kvitfjell. At the time Moe was a resident of Alaska; after his Olympic victories his father was shown on television waving the Alaska state flag.
Of Norwegian ancestry, he quickly became a favorite with the crowd at Kvitfjell, despite edging out Kjetil André Aamodt of Norway by 0.04 seconds to take the gold medal in the downhill. He then placed second in the super-G on his 24th birthday, finishing 0.09 seconds behind Markus Wasmeier of Germany. His success came despite not having yet won a World Cup race, though he had attained three podiums and had raced well the previous twelve months, starting with a fifth place in the downhill at the 1993 World Championships in Japan..
Moe's best World Cup season was also in 1994, where he finished third in the super-G and eighth in both the downhill and overall standings.
In March 1995, Moe suffered a right knee injury at Kvitfjell, on the same race course on which he won his Olympic medals thirteen months earlier. Following his recovery, he never regained his top form, and missed the World Championships in 1997 after a fluke thumb injury in late January required surgery. He returned in March and won the downhill at the U.S. Alpine Championships in Maine. Moe made his third U.S. Olympic team in 1998 at Nagano, and finished eighth in the super-G and twelfth in the downhill at Hakuba. He retired from competitive ski racing that June at age 28.

Career highlights

Season standings

Race podiums

SeasonDateLocationDisciplinePlace
199327 Feb 1993Whistler, BC, CanadaDownhill2nd
199412 Dec 1993Val-d'Isère, FranceSuper G3rd
199429 Dec 1993Bormio, ItalyDownhill3rd
199412 Mar 1994Whistler, BC, CanadaDownhill3rd
199413 Mar 1994Whistler, BC, CanadaSuper G1st
199416 Mar 1994Vail, CO, USADownhill3rd
199511 Dec 1994Tignes, FranceSuper G2nd

World Championship results

After racing

Moe and was inducted into the National Ski Hall of Fame five years later, and is currently a co-owner of Tordrillo Mountain Lodge in the Alaska Range and lives in Wilson, Wyoming. He serves as an ambassador of skiing at nearby Jackson Hole Mountain Resort.

Personal

Moe married longtime girlfriend Megan Gerety in 2003; they have two daughters and reside in western Wyoming.