Noelle Pikus Pace was born, the youngest of eight children, December 8th 1982 in Provo, Utah. In high school she competed in basketball, softball, track and field, soccer, bobsled, and began skeleton. She graduated from Mountain View High School in 2001. She then received a scholarship to compete for the University of Utah in track and field.
She married Janson Pace the summer of 2002 and transferred to Utah Valley State where she continued to run track and pursue the sport of skeleton. That year she was 3rd in the overall America’s Cup Skeleton races, broke the college high jump record, and was the NJCAA National Discus Champion. She was named 1st team All-American. The following year she won the overall America’s Cup title and was placed on the 2nd half of the World Cup tour.
In 2003-2004 she was 2nd in the National Selection Races in skeleton and competed on the World Cup tour finishing 14th in the World. In 2005 she went on to win her first World Cup gold medal in Winterberg, Germany and continued on to become the first American woman to win the Overall World Cup title. She graduated in April 2005 with a bachelor degree from Utah Valley State in community health and physical education.