It's cool when people ask me about my gold medal and they say it will last forever. I will try to promote skiing and show everyone it's not just about competition. It's about having fun with your friends in the snow. I want to bring people with less opportunities to the snow, try to use my gold medal to support programs to bring more people to the snow.

Julia Mancuso

Categorized in : People Fun Opportunity

The moment I think about past letdowns or future hypotheticals, I mentally put myself on shaky ground. If I clear my mind of chatter, I can succeed, just like I did in 2006.

Julia Mancuso

mind past thinking

To me the Olympic spirit embodies the magic of competition, hard work and coming to a point in your career when you're around the best athletes in the world, and having the whole world watching.

Julia Mancuso

hard-work careers athlete

I really think positive and hope that everything works out. Because you can't really change anything.

Julia Mancuso

things-work-out work-out thinking

I knew I really had to put down a good run. I played it safe, and took risks when I could, and I came in the fastest, I guess.

Julia Mancuso

risk safe running

I come to Maui and go surfing, standup paddling, slacklining, swimming, and free-diving.

Julia Mancuso

free-diving swimming surfing

Our sport is really European, so you get to show off what you do to your friends and family and they can actually follow along.

Julia Mancuso

showing-off family-and-friends sports

I think of how most people only get three weeks of vacation a year. And that, for me, seems like it would be really hard. My life feels like a vacation.

Julia Mancuso

vacation people thinking

We're really friendly. The cool thing about skiing is you're competing against the clock. Even though you're competing against your teammates, it's not head-to-head. And we can all do better. You can always do better. You never really have a perfect run. And someone beats you. So you can't really blame anyone.

Julia Mancuso

perfect friendly running

For me, it really just feels calm. When you're going fast on a downhill course, it's typically where it's wide open. I think it's kind of like driving a car. If you're going really fast and it's straight, everything seems to slow down. In general, racing downhill involves bigger turns and everything sort of slows down and you have a lot of time to think.

Julia Mancuso

car racing thinking

I personally love doing hot/cold, it’s a great way to recover, if you’re going into the hot tub make sure you periodically get out and into a cold shower. For every 5 minutes in hot I do 1 minute in cold-- and the more time you spend in the cold, the better the effect will be-- it helps flush out the lactic acid.

Julia Mancuso

health

The biggest injury is in the knees and back soreness, and that can be prevented by making sure you do all your core exercise before you get on the slope-- including a little core routine in the morning before your start.

Julia Mancuso

health

My best event is Super-G. I'm competitive in all my events, but Super-G has been most consistent for me.

Julia Mancuso

event best me events

The truth is, the sport of skiing takes so much effort, setting up and traveling with equipment, that you can only train for a certain number of days in the summer. Most of my peers ski between 40 to 60 days. I ski about 55 days.

Julia Mancuso

you truth-is effort truth

The best part about Maui is that I can spend a lot of time outside. My off-season is April, May, and June.

Julia Mancuso

outside best i-can time

When I travel, I always have about 40 pairs of skis with me, plus a ski technician and a ski coach.

Julia Mancuso

coach me always travel

Downhillers are going over 110 miles per hour. But no matter what, you can't hit the fence at 100 miles per hour.

Julia Mancuso

over you fence matter

I work out a lot, but I like to do action sports. A lot of surfing, mountain-biking.

Julia Mancuso

like action work sports

I'm excited to watch slope style and halfpipe. And then, of course, when my events are done, I get to go to hockey, which is always entertaining. I also like figure skating. I think every girl grew up watching figure skating.

Julia Mancuso

think hockey style girl

What has helped me prevent injuries is being connected and having my body aligned. Every morning, I roll out and then work on my core and my balance.

Julia Mancuso

me balance work morning

I do Nike Training Club, which is actually really hard and intense. I'm surprised every time I do it. I also use Map My Ride and Map My Run.

Julia Mancuso

ride hard training time