The 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, are only weeks away with team selections expected by the end of January. Among those vying for spots to compete in the Winter Games are nearly two dozen Tahoe and Truckee area athletes.
Olympic sports: Alpine skiing, Downhill, Super G, Giant Slalom, Super Combined
Homewood: Reno, Nev., and Olympic Valley
Resort Team: Squaw Valley
Julia Mancuso was born in Reno and raised in Olympic Valley. She began skiing and racing early on the slopes of Squaw, and made a mercurial rise to her first World Cup competition at the age of 15. Mancuso went on to win three Olympic medals including a Gold in the Giant Slalom in 2006, and two silvers in 2010, becoming the first American female skier to win three Olympic medals. She’s also won five World Championship medals, and seven World Cup Races.
While Mancuso’s race results this past year would not lead one to believe that she will be able to bring home medals from the 2012 Winter Olympics in Sochi, that’s what her naysayers said before the last two Olympics. In 2006, Julia won her Gold Medal after only three podium finishes that year. In 2010, she won two Olympic medals after not finishing in the top three in a race in the previous two years. This year, Mancuso has only placed in the top 15 once in the last 10 World Cup races. Just when you count her out, she comes through in the clutch.
Julia was raised as the middle of three sisters. While she looked up to her racer older sister, to this reporter, Julia’s quirky, independent personality is reminiscent of her younger sister Sara, who is now a singer known as Smokey Jones. I remember Sara Mancuso as the other Sara in my daughter’s second-grade class at Tahoe Lake School.
Julia Mancuso is a sponsor and fan favorite because of a smile that lights up a room, and her independent, laid back lifestyle. She has worn a tiara on her helmet several times during races, and proudly displayed it at the award ceremonies for her 2010 Olympic medal. After the tiara became a symbol of her Super Jules personality, she developed a line of lingerie called, Kiss My Tiara, and was quoted as saying, “I think underwear is my calling.” She’s been a Lange Girl, an underwear model and has appeared in a number of commercials including one for 24 Hour Fitness and a memorable Visa commercial, which begins with her as a little girl drawing a picture of herself winning gold, and ends with her arms raised in triumph after winning that long-desired medal.
While Mancuso still has a residence in Olympic Valley and Squaw proudly boasts a run named Julia’s Gold, in the summer months you are more likely to find Mancuso in the water’s of Hawaii surfing or paddling, then pedaling the single track around Tahoe.
Of course, since it is Julia, she’s not just taking it easy. She’s jumping into the water, diving down to the bottom, picking up large rocks and then running across the bottom of the ocean until she runs out of breath. Because whatever Mancuso is doing, it’s all about having fun while training. And, if she can do it in a swim suit, all the better.
Mancuso also is a savvy business woman with a list of sponsors a mile long including Go Pro, Squaw Valley, Koss, Head, Nike, Spyder and Visa. She owns the Performance Training Center in Truckee (10775 Pioneer Trail), which has a state-of-the- art gym and a regular schedule of fitness classes.
Recently, after her racing results were less then desired, Mancuso reported that she was “Taking a short break at home” before the Olympics. We all know what that means – she is just lowering our expectations, while she get’s primed for the big event. She will be ready to surprise the pundits with a win, although you would think that after three Olympic medals no one should be surprised when Julia win’s big.
