Julia Marie Mancuso (born March 9, 1984) is an American retired
World Cup alpine ski racer,
Olympic gold medalist and podcast host. She won the
giant slalom at the
2006 Winter Olympics
The 2006 Winter Olympics (), officially the XX Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February in Turin, Italy. This marked the second time Italy had hosted the Winter O ...
, and was the silver medalist in both
downhill and
combined in
2010
The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...
, and the bronze medalist in the
combined in
2014
The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...
. She has also won five medals (two silver and three bronze) at the
World Championships and seven races in regular World Cup competition. Her four Olympic medals are the most ever for a female American alpine skier.
Racing career
Mancuso made her World Cup debut at the age of 15 at
Copper Mountain, Colorado, on November 20,
1999
1999 was designated as the International Year of Older Persons.
Events January
* January 1 – The euro currency is established and the European Central Bank assumes its full powers.
* January 3 – The Mars Polar Lander is launc ...
. She was scouted by Patrick Rooney. Mancuso scored her first World Cup points (top-30 finish) during the
2001 season. While Mancuso 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. She was selected for the
2002 Winter Olympics at the age of 17, where she finished 13th in the
combined event.
Mancuso's World Cup results improved dramatically during the
2005
2005 was designated as the International Year for Sport and Physical Education and the International Year of Microcredit. The beginning of 2005 also marked the end of the International Decade of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Internationa ...
season, as she climbed to ninth place overall from 55th place in
2004
2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO).
Events January
* January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...
. At the
2005 World Championships, she won bronze medals in both the
super-G and the
giant slalom competitions. She took her first World Cup podium by finishing second in a super-G in
Cortina d'Ampezzo
Cortina d'Ampezzo (; , ; historical ) sometimes abbreviated to simply Cortina, is a town and ''comune'' in the heart of the southern (Dolomites, Dolomitic) Alps in the province of Belluno, in the Veneto region of Northern Italy. Situated on the ...
in 2006.
Her gold medal at the
2006 Turin Winter Olympics was unexpected, as she had just three podiums (finishing events in the top three) that season, though all were within weeks of the Olympics. Only one of those podiums was in giant slalom, a third place in the final GS race before the Olympics.
Mancuso won the race despite ongoing pain in her right knee, which was finally traced to
hip dysplasia.
She would finish the
2006 season in eighth place, including podium 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.
[ After several months off skis, she resumed training with the U.S. team in August, at their summer ski camp in ]South America
South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...
. 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
Val-d'Isère (, literally ''Valley of Isère (river), Isère'') is a Communes of France, commune of the Tarentaise Valley, in the Savoie Departments of France, department (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region) in southeastern France. It ...
, 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
Åre () is a Urban areas in Sweden, locality and one of the leading Scandinavian ski resorts situated in Åre Municipality, Jämtland County, Sweden with 3,200 inhabitants in 2018. It is, however, not the seat of the municipality, which is Järpe ...
, 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 overall title in 2008. Mancuso finished in second place in the 2007 season standings for both downhill and combined.
Following the 2008 season, Mancuso did not achieve a top-three finish in World Cup events for nearly two years due to back problems, so her silver medal in the women's downhill at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics was another surprise. 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. 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. Forced to restart 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. Her Olympic performances did however lead to a revival in form, as she took 16 World Cup podium finishes and two more World Championship medals over the next four years.
On the first competition day at the 2011 World Championships in Garmisch, Germany, she once again proved her strength at big events by winning the silver medal in the super-G. A month later she won her first World Cup race in over four years, a victory in the downhill at the World Cup finals in Lenzerheide
Lenzerheide ( Romansh: ''Lai'') is a mountain resort in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland at the foot of the Parpaner Rothorn. The village lies in the municipality Vaz/Obervaz in the district of Albula, sub-district Alvaschein.
Th ...
, Switzerland. Since this was a few days after a terrible earthquake and tsunami in Japan, she
launched a fundraiser by pledging half her race earnings of the World Cup finals to the skiershelpingjapan.com campaign website.
Over the three seasons through 2013, Mancuso was on the World Cup podium in at least 10 races, placing well in the season standings in varied events. But she finished in the top 15 in only one of the several late-2013 events that launched the 2014 season, and decided to take a break from the World Cup circuit to refresh for the 2014 Olympics. Mancuso's strategy worked, as she won her fourth Olympic medal, a bronze, in the women's super combined at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, after placing first in the downhill section.
During the 2014-15 season, Mancuso scored what would be her last World Cup podium in a downhill at Lake Louise, finishing third behind team-mates Lindsey Vonn and Stacey Cook as part of an American clean sweep of the podium places. After the end of the season Mancuso had to undergo a hip surgery in order to relieve persistent pain which was disabling her from skiing: as a result she missed the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons.
Mancuso returned to competition in December 2017, failing to finish a World Cup super-G in St. Moritz. She made two more appearances at the super-G races in Val-d'Isère
Val-d'Isère (, literally ''Valley of Isère (river), Isère'') is a Communes of France, commune of the Tarentaise Valley, in the Savoie Departments of France, department (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region) in southeastern France. It ...
a week later, however she could only manage a best finish of 42nd place. The following month, she announced her retirement from competition, making her final appearance in a downhill at Cortina d'Ampezzo - the venue where she had taken her first World Cup podium - whilst wearing a Wonder Woman
Wonder Woman is a superheroine who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in ''All Star Comics'' Introducing Wonder Woman, #8, published October 21, 1941, with her first feature in ''Sensation Comic ...
outfit and a cape.
Mancuso was known as a particularly strong competitor in major championships: whilst she took a total of 36 World Cup podium finishes from 398 races (nine percent), her nine Olympic and World Championship medals from 40 starts gave her a strike rate of 23 percent.
World Cup results
Season standings
Source:
Race podiums
* 7 wins – (3 DH, 2 SG, 1 SC, 1 CE)
* 36 podiums – (12 DH, 15 SG, 5 GS, 3 SC, 1 CE)
World Championship results
Olympic results
Lifestyle and endorsements
Mancuso's nickname among her U.S. Ski Team teammates and fans is "Super Jules". Following her Olympic gold medal in 2006, a ski run formerly called "Exhibition" at Squaw Valley Ski Resort was renamed "Julia's Gold".[
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. Mancuso also models lingerie and has been memorably quoted as saying, "I think underwear is my calling. You can be feminine and fast."
In December 2006, Lange ski boots 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". She switched to Völkl skis and Marker bindings following the 2010 season; she was previously with Rossignol. Mancuso changed equipment suppliers after the 2012 season and now uses ]Head
A head is the part of an organism which usually includes the ears, brain, forehead, cheeks, chin, eyes, nose, and mouth, each of which aid in various sensory functions such as sight, hearing, smell, and taste. Some very simple ani ...
skis, boots, and bindings.
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. She also starred in a commercial for 24 Hour Fitness called 'Reach Your Potential', directed by Brent Roske. In 2012, Mancuso appeared in the GoPro
GoPro, Inc. (marketed as GoPro and sometimes stylized as GoPRO) is an American technology company founded in 2002 by Nick Woodman. It manufactures action cameras and develops its own mobile apps and video editing software, video-editing software ...
Hero3 video promotion.
Personal life
Of Italian descent, Mancuso was born in Reno, Nevada
Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada–California border. It is the county seat and most populous city of Washoe County, Nevada, Washoe County. Sitting in the High Eastern Sierra foothills, ...
, and grew up in the nearby Lake Tahoe
Lake Tahoe (; Washo language, Washo: ''dáʔaw'') is a Fresh water, freshwater lake in the Sierra Nevada of the Western United States, straddling the border between California and Nevada. Lying at above sea level, Lake Tahoe is the largest a ...
area as the middle of three sisters, between older sister April and younger sister Sara. Her father, Ciro Mancuso, was arrested at the family home when Julia was five years old, and was later convicted of running a $140 million marijuana
Cannabis (), commonly known as marijuana (), weed, pot, and ganja, List of slang names for cannabis, among other names, is a non-chemically uniform psychoactive drug from the ''Cannabis'' plant. Native to Central or South Asia, cannabis has ...
smuggling operation. Her parents divorced in 1992, and her mother Andrea (''née
The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...
'' Tuffanelli) said that Julia "took everything out on the slopes." After his release from prison in 2000, Julia and her father became close. Ciro's sentence was greatly reduced because of his cooperation with the government in cases against other alleged organization members and Mancuso's lawyer Patrick Hallinan. As a result of his assistance to the government, Ciro Mancuso was allowed to keep $5 million in proceeds from his trafficking business.
Mancuso graduated from The Winter Sports School in Park City, Utah, in 2000 and resides in Olympic Valley, California.
She dated Norwegian alpine skier Aksel Lund Svindal for four years, until they decided to go their separate ways in September 2013. During her post-2015 injury layoff, Mancuso married surfer Dylan Fish. In July 2019, Mancuso gave birth to their son Sonny Fish Mancuso.
In her spare time, Mancuso enjoys participating in other sports like surfing or freeride skiing. In 2016, she appeared in the Redbull Media House movie "Shades of Winter. Between" starring alongside other extreme sport performers.
Being the influential figure she is in Lake Tahoe, Mancuso has fostered relationships with many young racers and even sells and gives them her old racing suits.
References
External links
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*
Julia Mancuso
at Stoeckli Skis (archived)
Julia Mancuso
at the U.S. Ski Team
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mancuso, Julia
1984 births
Living people
American female alpine skiers
Alpine skiers at the 2002 Winter Olympics
Alpine skiers at the 2006 Winter Olympics
Alpine skiers at the 2010 Winter Olympics
Alpine skiers at the 2014 Winter Olympics
Medalists at the 2006 Winter Olympics
Medalists at the 2010 Winter Olympics
Medalists at the 2014 Winter Olympics
Olympic gold medalists for the United States in alpine skiing
Olympic silver medalists for the United States in alpine skiing
Olympic bronze medalists for the United States in alpine skiing
American people of Italian descent
People of Calabrian descent
Sportspeople from Nevada
Skiers from Reno, Nevada
21st-century American sportswomen
Sportspeople from Olympic Valley, California