Skiier Julia Mancuso Retires Ahead of Olympics

The 2018 Winter Olympics are just a couple of weeks away, but these games will be without the United States’ women’s all time leader in Olympic alpine skiing medals. Julia Mancuso has decided to hang it up after competing in four Olympics and winning four medals. Mancuso, 33, retired after a World Cup event  in Cortina D’Ampezzo, Italy, over the January 20th weekend.

Mancuso was just 17 when she competed in the Women’s Combined event at the Salt Lake City games in 2002. She won her first medal in Turin, Italy in 2006, winning the gold in the Giant Slalom. She took the silver in both the Women’s Combined and Downhill in Vancouver in 2010, and added a bronze in the Combined in Sochi, Russia in 2014. She’s also won five World Championship medals. She missed the last two World Cup seasons following hip surgery, and after attempting a comeback this year, decided it was time to retire.

Although she has retired as a competitor, Mancuso will be going to the Olympics in Pyeongchang anyway. She will be there as a member of NBC’s Olympic broadcast team covering alpine skiing.

Here she is winning that gold medal in 2006: