Julia Mancuso life and biography

Julia Mancuso is an American alpine ski racer with the U.S. Ski Team. Born in Reno, Nevada, she was the gold medalist in the giant slalom at the 2006 Winter Olympics, the silver medalist in both downhill and combined at the 2010 Winter Olympics, and the bronze medalist in the combined at the 2014 Winter Olympics (at Sochi, Russia).

During Monday's race February 10th at the Sochi Olympics 2014, Mancuso won her fourth Olympic medal by taking the bronze in the women's super-combined. Mancuso, who finished second to Hoefl-Riesch in 2010, grabbed the early lead with a terrific downhill run and did just enough in the slalom to earn her fourth Olympic medal, tops all-time for American women in alpine skiing.

The 29-year-old American carried a lead of .47 seconds into the slalom and finished the combined with a time of 2:35.15. She was just .10 seconds ahead of Slovenia's Tina Maze.

Her World Cup results improved dramatically during the 2005 season, as she climbed to ninth place overall from 55th place in 2004. At the 2005 World Championships, she won bronze medals in both the super G and the giant slalom competitions. 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.

She 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. 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, 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, 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.

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