Julia Mancuso Quotations

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.

We're just used to it. Every race, there's always some stuff that happens, whether it's a teammate or not. You sort of have to refocus at the start and go.

We always are training in bad weather and I grew up skiing in powder.

I was freaking out, it was so tough.

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

I got my first Olympic race out of the way with the downhill, so my nerves aren't anything compared to that.

I don't know whether we're really going to sell the documentary or whether anybody will buy it. I think she's just doing it for fun.

I find music distracting - it takes me out of my head. What I love so much about skiing is the peacefulness.

He was bummed about not getting a medal, but I think he was more bummed about not getting recognition for doing his best because he went out there and really skied his best.

Going into the second run, I just had to remember it was about skiing, it wasn't about winning or about what place I was in. Once I kicked out of the start gate, I just tried to go my fastest.

For me, personally, getting a podium is not as important as feeling super comfortable on my skiing.

I was coming here with hopes for a podium and maybe a win.

I was a little bit surprised at the finish. It was a slow feeling, but I guess everyone felt that way.

Just another day on a stormy race course. That sort of helped me take the pressure.

Right now my skiing is going really well. I'm excited. Every event I'm entered I'm looking to win. I don't know what my chances are, but I'm going to give it my best.

It felt like home, so I dug into my roots and trusted myself. It was just another day on a stormy race course.

I was ready to give my best and not hold back just because I couldn't see.

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

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

We had high expectations. Everyone wants to shoot for the moon. You'll end up in the stars, anyway.

We like to be fun, we like to keep it light. It was more like a fun thing than a ritual.

We will use this as an opportunity to show the world what we do. We like to show everyone that skiing rocks.

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

I ski fast for me, first and foremost, and I ski fast for my family, and it's always the love that gets me to the podium.

The World Cup is sort of what we do. The Olympics are sort of a bonus.

For me, it makes me focus on each race singularly. It's not so much tactics. You just have to go out there and have your best slalom race, because that's the only place you can win or lose the combined. It's hard to take risks in the downhill.

It's really inspiring to see somebody go down so hard and come back and compete -- and do such a good job.

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

I've got a little bit of Italian in my heart.

They are not convinced I'm American; they think I'm Italian.

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.

I'm excited to race the GS. GS is more an event where you can tell if you're fast or slow.

I had some questions coming in here, that I didn't have very much press before the Olympics and other people were more in the spotlight and I ended up getting a medal. So then you get the publicity after you get the medal.

I'm very positive. My last three races at the World Cup I was on the podium and two of them I lost by a slim margin. I have nothing to worry about. I have all my equipment. Everything is falling in place.

Because it was bad weather it made it seem less like the Olympics because you always dream of the Olympics as just the perfect race.

I don't really believe in lucky things, but I wear lucky underwear as a joke.

I didn't see it because I ran right after her. I knew something was wrong.

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

I can see it's going to take a really good run to get on the podium. The girls are racing so well. I'm really going to have to take my tucks well.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The combined really needs to change format. We've had some super combined (consisting of one downhill and one slalom run) on the World Cup. That's a pretty good format. Or make the downhill longer and more difficult.