Julia Mancuso: Superstar in the World of Alpine Skiing

During the Torino Winter Olympics in 2006, one veteran gold medalist Alpine skier, working as a commentator, stated how she was really unimpressed with the current crop of U.S. woman skiers. That they left a lot to be desired, and something about their lack of maturity.

As what often happens in sport, one skier rose from out of the pack and delivered one of the greatest performances of all time. A 21 year old from Nevada/Northern California named Julia Mancuso. She won the gold medal for the woman's Giant Slalom.

Since that time, I thought we could cover her much more than we have here. She has, however, just for the record, arrived as a bonafide superstar in Alpine Skiing. Because of her personality and good looks, she has also been very marketable as, lets face it, a sexy young American athlete.

She's very active, both as an athlete, and in other endeavors. Recently she took up surfing, which was amusing since surfing is the polar opposite of skiing. Last month she climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro for charity. She's currently raising money for the World Wildlife Fund, and a lot of other concerns. She's really an amazing young woman, and it seems to come natually for her. I think many people have taken to her because she is so genuine.

There are so many great bios about Julia that I think it may be a little too long winded to place all of the text here. Also, there are so many great photos of her. For example, the Kilimanjaro climb, which she seemed to take a little lightly and had to pull it together. That is one giant mountain. Anyway, I just couldn't place all of her images here now, as there are just too many of them. There are also a lot of excellent video streams of her at YouTube. I have many links to look at below.


Again, like always, I feel that I haven't even begun to do this justice, in this little space here now. Hopefully we can follow Julia better in the next two years, towards the Vancouver Winter Olympics of 2010! That should really be something, up in "British California," as some call it. Lastly, you might want to read her account of the Kilimanjaro climb from the link to her blog below.

Julia Mancuso - Official Site

Kilimanjaro: Pain and Riches [from Julia's blog]

Bio from USSkiTeam.com

Julia Mancuso [Wikipedia]

Julia video streams on YouTube

Julia interview from 'Outside' magazine [11/07]

Julia gallery from 'Outside' magazine photo shoot