Julia Mancuso

[Started at 53]

Julia is set to make a start tomorrow in St Moritz, Switzerland.

Bib #24

 

[Fishbowl]

Pic of the day?

 

[hbear]

Hope it all goes well for Jules!

 

[Dave Marshak]

 

[Dave Marshak]

I'll start:

 

[Bad Bob]

Well worth posting twice

 

[Muleski]

Interesting. Tomorrow is the combined. So she's on the list for the SG, which is run before the SL.
If she races the SG, my assumption is that she will not race the SL run. You can't enter just one. You can elect not to race the SL, though, after the SG.

Her racing would be an interesting development, IMO. It's an Olympic year. She's good PR. You guys posting the pictures play right into it! Go Super Jules! Kiss my Tiara.

Have heard from friends who saw her walking in Vail a couple of weeks ago that she looks pretty "hobbled" moving around. Maybe she's feeling good to go on skis, though? I have no insight at all. Assumption that I hear is that she is largely finished. I have heard that her career might end with an orchestrated attempt to do it...and deciding even before pushing out of the gate that she can't.

We could see her entered and then "pulled", which went on most of last season. Just don't know what to expect. She has not had a normal volume of training, I believe.

I sounds like she wants to ski, wants to be in Korea, is doing her best to be really strong......but that she is also realistic. If she gives it all that she can, and it's not possible, it is what it is.

There are also SG's on Saturday, and Sunday, BTW.

The USA has seven starts in this combined. Not sure that they are "taking a start away" from anybody with this one. That may be part of it. The start list for the SG's, with her on it, drops somebody else off, and that is a more crowded group to begin with. Some of the USA SG skiers are not combined threats, so this might be a good chance for whatever reason to have Mancuso on the list.

Interesting.........I do wish her well. Been a long career, and her hips have to be very painful.

 

[Tricia]

I'll see your JM pic and raise you a bad ass pic.

Crossing fingers for a good hip move.
@Rudi Riet knows a bit about Hips and some such.

 

[Blue Streak]

Julia is set to make a start tomorrow in St Moritz, Switzerland.

Bib #24

I'll take the under.

 

[Rudi Riet]

@Rudi Riet knows a bit about Hips and some such.

Just a bit, yeah.

As I said somewhere on Facebook: let's hope her hip holds up to the punishment. I'm worried that her hip isn't close to 100 percent - the reports of her hobbling around Colorado has me wondering if things are any better, and I'm guessing they aren't. Speaking as a guy who skied on a deteriorating hip for the past two seasons, I know that pain. It makes you question every move on your skis. It's also tough to get proper angulation, which means your footing is a lot less sure, and it's easier to get thrown around when the hip essentially locks into position. Confidence is essential when skiing at the elite level, and a chronic hip injury is just the thing that'll break a racer's psyche.

We shall see. I wish her luck.

 

[Karl B]

Interesting. Tomorrow is the combined. So she's on the list for the SG, which is run before the SL.
If she races the SG, my assumption is that she will not race the SL run. You can't enter just one. You can elect not to race the SL, though, after the SG.

Her racing would be an interesting development, IMO. It's an Olympic year. She's good PR. You guys posting the pictures play right into it! Go Super Jules! Kiss my Tiara.

Have heard from friends who saw her walking in Vail a couple of weeks ago that she looks pretty "hobbled" moving around. Maybe she's feeling good to go on skis, though? I have no insight at all. Assumption that I hear is that she is largely finished. I have heard that her career might end with an orchestrated attempt to do it...and deciding even before pushing out of the gate that she can't.

We could see her entered and then "pulled", which went on most of last season. Just don't know what to expect. She has not had a normal volume of training, I believe.

I sounds like she wants to ski, wants to be in Korea, is doing her best to be really strong......but that she is also realistic. If she gives it all that she can, and it's not possible, it is what it is.

There are also SG's on Saturday, and Sunday, BTW.

The USA has seven starts in this combined. Not sure that they are "taking a start away" from anybody with this one. That may be part of it. The start list for the SG's, with her on it, drops somebody else off, and that is a more crowded group to begin with. Some of the USA SG skiers are not combined threats, so this might be a good chance for whatever reason to have Mancuso on the list.

Interesting.........I do wish her well. Been a long career, and her hips have to be very painful.

So much for that plan. Due to weather conditions they are running the slalom first today.

Update! Julia did race the slalom coming 42, right behind Stacy Cook.

Karl

 

[Started at 53]

I was “watching” the live results online and she was never competitive out of the gates. 7+ seconds behind MS.

But she did start and finish, but that is about it, essentially finished last among those that did not ski out

 

[Karl B]

I believe @Muleski is correct, that JM needs to run this SG to determine or prove that she can be competitive. She just learned that running the slalom first was the price of admission. Gonna be tough to compete with Shiffrin though.

Karl

 

[Started at 53]

Hmmm
Sadly the race was canceled due to bad weather after the first run.

I guess with only one run there is no win for MS? Kinda sux if that is the case.

Anyone know what the weather issue was?

 

[Muleski]

Fog.

The SG results on Saturday will be used with today's SL run to calculate the results for the SC.

So, I presume we MIGHT see JM in the SG. She actually gets a benefit from this scheduling as she would have started dead last if the SG leg were run Friday afternoon {based on her SL}. This will give her a better start. I think. I'm not 100% sure of how they will run this, though. There's a protocol, and I can't recall what it is.

But, yes, the plan of running the SG and bailing on the SL was blown up. Her SL and combined days are pretty clearly done.

We'll see about tomorrow. Best of luck to her.

 

[Dwight]

My only take on Julia is her live instagram feed on works outs. hmm, there is definitely leg/hip issues still. Hope it goes well. I would suck to want to compete and have your body constantly say no.

 

[Blue Streak]

It would suck to want to compete and have your body constantly say no.

No kidding!
Let’s see a show of hands on that one

 

[Started at 53]

As someone who fights pain everyday, actually since I was 13, it is not fun.

I had a close call with pain med addiction, and now get pain management injections about every 18 months. I went 15 years never sleeping more than 90 minutes at a time. It is not fun. I am better now than I have been in the past 40 years, go figure.

So.... pain sucks!

 

[Muleski]

It's tough to observe this, and to see a wide horizon of opinions and writing in media, social media, and HER social media. Add to it the talk that some of us hear, comments about observing her on snow and off, etc.

Last season, the social media world was talking up her return at full strength at the beginning of the season. And of course the entire winter was problematic for her racing. On a lot of start lists, and never raced. Foreran maybe once.

It sounds like she is in pain, and, IMO, more importantly that there is doubt as to whether she can physically actually ski a WC speed event. One piece is being competitive, and the second is being safe. I assume that somebody is helping her manage that balance, and think it through.

Lots of rumors that she'll need quite a bit more surgery when she stops WC racing to "fix" her hip{s}. I am sure she wants a very, very active life.

The motivation on this is something that interests me, and something that we'll probably never know about. She has long been considered perhaps the best pure female athlete to ever join the USST. And that enabled her to have a long and solid career. Some get critical in terms of her being difficult, perhaps spoiled, and to a large degree about fun. Not a lot of WC wins over a long career. But certainly a lot of fun..

She's always raised her game at the time of the Olympics and Worlds. Always. I assume that her ideal ending would be to make the team for this year's games and truly compete for a medal. I can't guess about simply being a part of the team.

I suspect we'll know tomorrow if she has anything left in terms of her SG skiing. Sadly I sense that it's the one event they are holding on to.

Being in pain, and not being able to "execute" her skiing has to suck. I don't think she has a thing to prove. She's been in the WC for more than half her life.

I hope this all works out well. Perhaps we'll get a great surprise tomorrow. Not expecting it.

It eventually has to end for all of them.

 

[Eleeski]

I competed waterskiing on a bad hip for several years. I could barely rehearse on dry land. It was quite frustrating but I was able to pull off a couple good tournaments. It is just one more adverse condition to deal with.

However, my ability to deal with ice when snow skiing completely went away. It might be tough for Julia.

Floyd Landis won the Tour de France with a shot hip (yeah, I know but it was incredible physical performance regardless). He got a replacement Birmingham hip after that.

When I got scheduled for the Birmingham hip, the doctor said to go for it on the tournament over the weekend two days pre-op. The operation doesn't care about what happens before. My results of the surgery were excellent. But other variables have kept me from being totally satisfied with my post-op tournament results. That's competition.

Good luck to Julia.

Eric