Industry News
After a famed 18-year career, Olympic champion Julia Mancuso will hang up her skis and take a victory lap on Friday, January 19th in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. Mancuso will move on to the next chapter of her career in PyeongChang, South Korea, this time not on the mountain, but with the NBC Olympics team in PyeongChang, reports usskiandsnowboard.org.
As a junior ski racer, Squaw Valley, CA girl Mancuso came bursting on to the scene by grabbing an American record eight Junior World Championship medals. A four-event athlete from the beginning, Mancuso started World Cup racing and was a NorAm champion at 16, competed in the Olympics at 17, set a U.S. record for Junior World Championships medals before she was out of her teens, and then started her twenties by capturing two World Championships medals.
Mancuso’s first FIS Ski World Cup was in 1999, and her first World Cup podium was a super-G silver in Cortina. Known for her renegade style and her ability to perform on the big stage, Mancuso donned a tiara on the podium in 2006 and 2010 when she won Olympic gold and silver.
Nicknamed “Super Jules” and often sporting superhero attire, Mancuso led a fun-focused, unconventional career, splitting her time between surfing in Maui and traveling the world chasing snow in the winter. In between, she captured more major event medals than any other American woman with nine – four Olympic and five World Championship medals.
In 2010, Mancuso proved to the snowsports world that she was one of the most well-rounded and gifted skiers, grabbing a third in the Extreme Verbier Freeride event. Growing up skiing Squaw Valley, California, Mancuso was always inspired by the mountain and had a love for freeskiing too.
Since she was 18 years old, though, Mancuso battled issues with her hip. Hip surgery after the 2014-15 season had Mancuso sidelined from World Cup competition for two full seasons, but with an extreme fighter mentality, she made her return to competition in St. Moritz, Switzerland in December of 2017.
“It has been an epic battle with my hip injury, and the past three years I have put everything into returning to competition at the highest level and the goal to reach my fifth Olympic Games,” reflected Mancuso. “There have been really promising days during this challenging process, and I have kept my spirits up despite many who questioned or doubted me. Sadly, I haven’t found the progression to compete with the best in the world again, but I’m proud to have fought until the very end. It is with a heavy heart that I say goodbye to ski racing, but I do so with a full heart.”
Julia Mancuso Career Highlights
- Most decorated big event American female athlete (nine medals: four Olympics, five World Championships)
- Most Olympic medals for an American female ski or snowboard athlete (four)
- Medals in three consecutive Olympic Games
- Gold, giant slalom, Torino, ITA, 2006
- Silver, downhill, Vancouver, CAN, 2010
- Silver, super combined, Vancouver, CAN, 2010
- Bronze, super combined, Sochi, RUS, 2014
- Four Olympic Teams
- Seven World Cup victories across four disciplines (city event, downhill, super-G, alpine combined)
- 36 World Cup podiums
- 399 World Cup starts
- First World Cup start November 20, 1999 – Copper Mountain, Colo.
