Some of us posted going back quite a while ago, to stay tuned for the marketing hype re: "Big Game Jules" during this Olympic year. To be blunt, it's a money grab for NBC, the USSA/USST, and JM. She has some big deals that run through this year. Anything that the USST feels can help their fundraising is important to them.
Remember last season? I recall people being a bit upset, and certainly irritated that some of us might suggest that she had SEVERE hip issues {not just one hip, not just a labrum} and that there was no way that she would compete. Yet we saw this season long charade of being on start lists, being pulled from them, forerunning, etc. And yes, we saw video of her "training", and skiing.
Very much like the past two weeks in Chile. These look a bit more rigorous, but impossible to know unless you were there. I think mostly photo-ops.
Julia has hip displasia, was born with it{obviously} and this is not "new news." Has always been a bit of a ticking time bomb. It's rough. Lots of problems.
Meanwhile, those close to it were quietly saying that she could not pressure either ski last season. One hip more problematic. Lots of pain. Easily exhausted. You can't ski a WC speed event with no hips. Impossible. You CAN, with her skills,forerun a SG, gently, if it's the right hill, and finish about 8 seconds behind the pace. On a clean, never skied track. And we hear that she has difficulty really even walking at times.
I would bet the farm that Julia is done, finished, cooked. I'm hearing that from people who truly know. Will this be admitted yet? Not a chance. Will she and others use her name to the max in an Olympic year? Yes.
By objective criteria, could she qualify for a start, like through time trials? Really, really doubtful. The ladies speed group is the best part of the USST. Pretty deep.
I hear the chatter that JM will eventually need major surgery. Two eventual hip replacements is one rumor that makes it's way to me. Accurate? Who knows? But regardless it's not a great situation. She's been put back together with the hope that she could ski....and she could NOT last year. Not sure of what has changed.
So then it sounds like the PR machine turned to one final push for one final Olympics.
Almost as maddening as the whole charade about Bode a year ago, and the whole "Bomber thing."
The USST doesn't report injuries like the major sports do. No PUP list. No injured reserve. Etc.
So kind of hard to know....hence the rumor mill, etc.
I will admit, I am NOT a big Julia fan. Never have been. I think she is perhaps the best female athlete to ever don a USST uniform and 17 years later, she has exactly 7 wins. A bit behind her age group peer LV, who is nowhere near the athlete but for most of those 17 years worked like a dog. Julia and the tiara crap was perfect as she has always been a bit of a princess. Let's say that MS has displayed so much more focus at a young age, as well.
Fun is a big part of Julia. Always had been. And every four years it sells.
When the hype train starts on NBC, in particular, I'll be tuning out.
Sorry to be harsh. And to
@Tricia's question about rehab, lots of mixed "intel." Some say almost none, nothing to rehab, just surfing and kiteboarding with her new surfer husband at her home on Maui, or his on Fiji. However there have been a lot of sightings of her in the gym at times this summer in Truckee. Along with them questions of what she was working on. But she was working...
The best hip ski injury doc in the biz has done her various hip scopes and surgeries. Marc Phillipon in Vail. It seems like he has been very, very quiet on this over at least the past year. Don't know what that means if anything.
Might just be respect and confidentiality, but he has certainly been in the press on this issue in the past.
I don't know. I near nothing for chatter other than "she's done, her hips are cooked, this whole thing is a joke/ charade, one last big payday...."
Probably not a popular hard line for the general ski public. But that's what I hear. And hopefully it's not entirely accurate. Being forced to end it due to injury sucks...if that is indeed the case.
If she can pull it off, ski well, and qualify for the team to Korea, great. If they somehow make her a discretionary pic over somebody who is skiing well, and deserves it based on a season of work, then that is flat out wrong. And nothing new. I would hate to see that.
As you can probably tell, not an enormous fan of the Olympics. Actually prefer World Cup Finals.
None of this is fact. Just chatter that's out there in some circles. But if she is toast, we're not going to know for some time. Julia is a good asset for NBC. I think the last thing to rely on is social media with this athlete. Reminds me of ALL of last year.
