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Julia Mancuso

Disciplines	Downhill, SuperG, Giant slalom, Slalom, Combined
Date of birth	March 9, 1984 (1984-03-09) (age 26)
Place of birth	Reno, Nevada, USA
Height	5 ft 6 in (1.68 m)
World Cup debut	November 20, 1999
Website	www.juliamancuso.com
Olympics
Teams	3
Medals	3 (1 gold)
World Championships
Teams	3
Medals	3 (0 gold)
World Cup
Seasons	10
Wins	4
Podiums	20
Overall titles	0
Discipline titles	0

Julia Mancuso (born March 9, 1984) is an alpine ski racer with the U.S. Ski Team. She was the gold medalist in the giant slalom at the 2006 Winter Olympics and the silver medalist in both downhill and combined at the 2010 Winter Olympics. She has also won three medals (a silver and two bronzes) at the World Ski Championships, although she has only won four races in regular World Cup competition. Her three Olympic medals are the most ever for a female American alpine skier.

Skiing career

Mancuso during the public draw for the Giant Slalom in Semmering, Austria, in December 2006.

Mancuso made her World Cup debut at Copper Mountain, Colorado, on November 20, 1999, at the age of 15. She scored her first World Cup points (top-30 finish in a race) during the 2001 season. While she often struggled in World Cup races over the next few seasons, she enjoyed exceptional success at the Junior World Championships, winning a record eight medals, including five golds in 2002, 2003, and 2004.

Her World Cup results improved dramatically during the 2005 season, as she climbed to ninth place overall from 55th place in 2004. At the 2005 World Championships, she won bronze medals in both the super G and the giant slalom competitions. Her unexpected gold medal at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics, coming when she had never finished higher than second in a World Cup race, launched her to stardom.

She won the race despite ongoing pain in her right knee, which was finally traced to hip dysplasia.^[1] She would finish the 2006 season in eighth place, including podium (top three) finishes in three races, although she could sometimes barely walk by season's end.

At the start of the off-season, Mancuso endured arthroscopic surgery on her right hip to remove an inch-long bone spur on the ball of the joint.^[1] After several months off skis, she resumed training with the U.S. team in August, at their summer ski camp in South America. By the start of the 2007 season, she was almost fully recovered.

Although she started off slowly, with a number of disappointing results in the first few weeks as she worked back into race shape, the 2007 season would turn out to be Mancuso's breakout year on the World Cup circuit. She won her first World Cup race on December 19, 2006, a downhill in Val-d'Isère, France, and then took second in another downhill the next day. She went on to win three more races during the season; a Super G, a super combined, and another downhill. At the 2007 World Championships in Åre, Sweden, she won a silver medal in the super combined. After finishing on the podium in three consecutive races (2nd, 1st, 3rd) in Tarvisio, Italy, on March 2–4, 2007, she was tied for the overall World Cup lead. She eventually finished the season in third place overall, the best finish by an American woman since Tamara McKinney in 1984, until Lindsey Vonn won the World Cup title in 2008. She was also in second place in the discipline standings in both downhill and combined.

However, she had not won another World Cup race since the 2007 season and had not even achieved a top-three finish in World Cup events in two years due to back problems, so her silver medal in the women's downhill at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics was another surprise.^[2] The very next day, she won another silver in the Women's Super Combined, an event that incorporates both a downhill and a slalom run.^[3] However, while Mancuso was trying to defend her title in giant slalom, Lindsey Vonn crashed after Mancuso, the next skier, had started, forcing Mancuso's run to be stopped just before she reached Vonn's crash.^[4] Forced to re-start from the back of the pack, Mancuso only managed an 18th-place first run, and her strong second run only brought her up to eighth overall.^[5]

Medal record
Women’s alpine skiing
Competitor for the  United States
Olympic Games
Gold	2006 Turin	Giant slalom
Silver	2010 Vancouver	Downhill
Silver	2010 Vancouver	Combined
World Championships
Silver	2007 Åre	Super combined
Bronze	2005 Bormio	Super-G
Bronze	2005 Bormio	Giant slalom

Lifestyle and endorsements

Mancuso's nickname among her U.S. Ski Team teammates and fans is "Super Jules".^[6] Following her Olympic gold medal in 2006, a ski run at Squaw Valley Ski Resort was renamed "Julia's Gold".^[7]

After her coach gave her a plastic tiara as a good-luck token in 2005, she wore it over her racing helmet during several slalom races. She wore her tiara following her Silver Medal run in the Women's Downhill and again at the medal ceremony at the 2010 Winter Olympics. In 2010, Mancuso launched her own lingerie line named Kiss My Tiara.^[8] Mancuso also models lingerie and has been memorably quoted as saying, "I think underwear is my calling. You can be feminine and fast." ^[9]

Mancuso competes using Rossignol skis, Lange boots and POC helmets and armor. In December 2006, Lange announced that Mancuso would be the first-ever "Lange Girl Athlete", and be the subject of posters, images, and an "ongoing effort to showcase exceptional women ski athletes who are also attractive and inspiring".^[10]

During the 2010 Winter Olympics, VISA featured Mancuso in an animated story describing how as a child she had drawn a picture of herself as a gold medalist, and closing with a photograph of her after winning the gold medal in 2006.^[11] She also starred in a commercial for 24 Hour Fitness called 'Reach Your Potential', directed by Emmy nominee Brent Roske.

Personal life

Mancuso was born in Reno, Nevada. She grew up in Lake Tahoe as the middle of three sisters, between older sister April and younger sister Sara. When she was five, her father, Ciro Mancuso, was arrested and convicted of running a $140 million marijuana smuggling operation.^[12] Her parents subsequently divorced in 1992, and her mother said that Julia "took everything out on the slopes."^[12] After his release from prison, she and her father became close.^[12]

In March 2007, she was linked to Norwegian alpine skier Aksel Lund Svindal, the 2006–7 World Cup men's champion.^[13]

She attended The Winter Sports School in Park City, graduating in 2000. She resides in Olympic Valley, California.

World Cup podiums

Season	Date	Location	Discipline	Place
2005		2005 World Championships
2006	January 27, 2006	Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy	Super-G	2nd
	January 28, 2006	Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy	Downhill	2nd
	February 14, 2006	Ofterschwang, Germany	Giant Slalom	3rd
		2006 Winter Olympics
2007	December 19, 2006	Val-d'Isère, France	Downhill	1st
	December 20, 2006	Val-d'Isère, France	Downhill	2nd
	January 13, 2007	Altenmarkt, Austria	Downhill	3rd
	January 14, 2007	Altenmarkt, Austria	Super-Combined	1st
	January 19, 2007	Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy	Super-G	1st
	January 20, 2007	Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy	Downhill	2nd
	January 21, 2007	Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy	Giant Slalom	2nd
		2007 World Championships
	March 2, 2007	Tarvisio, Italy	Super-Combined	2nd
	March 3, 2007	Tarvisio, Italy	Downhill	1st
	March 4, 2007	Tarvisio, Italy	Super G	3rd
2008	October 27, 2007	Sölden, Austria	Giant Slalom	2nd
	December 21, 2007	St. Anton, Austria	Downhill	3rd
	December 22, 2007	St. Anton, Austria	Super-Combined	3rd
	December 28, 2007	Lienz, Austria	Giant Slalom	2nd
	January 20, 2008	Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy	Super-G	2nd
	February 22, 2008	Whistler, BC, Canada	Downhill	3rd
2010		2010 Winter Olympics
	March 7, 2010	Crans-Montana, Switzerland	Super G	3rd

References

External links

• Julia Mancuso.net - personal website
• U.S. Ski Team.com - profile - Julia Mancuso
• Julia Mancuso at the International Ski Federation
• vancouver2010.com - profile - Julia Mancuso - USA - alpine skiing