Noelle Pikus-Pace

UVSC track star and recent graduate (integrated studies), Noelle Pikus-Pace ’05 from Orem, lives for the adrenaline rush that only sliding down a sheet of ice at 80 miles per hour can afford. The 2005 Women’s Skeleton World Cup Champion is hoping to qualify for the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy despite the leg injury she sustained in October an accident with a runaway bobsled that broke her leg. The compound fracture was successfully pinned and now Pikus-Pace is vigorously involved in rehabilitation and competition.

Just 11 weeks after the accident, Pikus-Pace was 8th (the top American finisher,) placing 8th at the final World Cup race of the first half of the season in Sigulda, Latvia December 14. She recently shared her incredible story with Jay Leno on the Tonight Show and looks forward to competing in Germany before Olympic team members are determined later this month