Julia Mancuso

Julia Marie Mancuso (born March 9, 1984) is an American World Cup alpine ski racer and Olympic gold medalist. She won the giant slalom at the 2006 Winter Olympics, and was the silver medalist in both downhill and combined in 2010, and the bronze medalist in the combined in 2014. She has also won five medals (two silver and three bronze) at the World Championships and seven races in regular World Cup competition. Her four Olympic medals are the most ever for a female American alpine skier.

Racing career

Mancuso made her World Cup debut at the age of 15 at Copper Mountain, Colorado, on November 20, 1999. Scouted by Patrick Rooney, he knew he had a gem. She scored her first World Cup points (top-30 finish) during the 2001 season. While Mancuso often struggled in World Cup races over the next few seasons, she enjoyed exceptional success at the Junior World Championships, winning a record eight medals, including five golds in 2002, 2003 and 2004.

Mancuso's 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.

Julia

Julia is usually a woman's given name. It is a Latinate feminine form of the name Julius. Julius was a Roman family, derived from a founder Julus, the son of Aeneas and Creusa in Roman mythology, although the name's etymology may possibly derive from Greek ἴουλος (ioulos) "downy-[haired, bearded]" or alternatively from the name of the Roman god Jupiter.

Like its male counterpart, the given name Julia had been in use throughout Late Antiquity (e.g. Julia of Corsica) but became rare during the Middle Ages, and was revived only with the Italian Renaissance. It became common in the English-speaking world only in the 18th century. Today, it is frequently used throughout the world. It was the 10th most popular name for girls born in the United States in 2007 and the 88th most popular name for females in the 1990 census there. It has been among the top 150 names given to girls in the United States for the past 100 years. It was the 89th most popular name for girls born in England and Wales in 2007; the 94th most popular name for girls born in Scotland in 2007; the 13th most popular name for girls born in Spain in 2006; the fifth most popular name for girls born in Sweden in 2007; the 94th most popular name for girls born in Belgium in 2006; the 53rd most popular name for girls born in Norway in 2007; the 70th most popular name for girls born in Hungary in 2005; the 19th most popular name for girls born in British Columbia, Canada in 2006; the 9th most popular name for girls born in Germany in 2005; the 2nd most popular name for girls born in Poland in 2013 and the most popular name in Austria.

Giant slalom

Giant slalom (GS) is an alpine skiing and alpine snowboarding discipline. It involves skiing between sets of poles (gates) spaced at a greater distance to each other than in slalom but less than in Super-G.

Giant slalom and slalom make up the technical events in alpine ski racing. This category separates them from the speed events of Super-G and downhill. The technical events are normally composed of two runs, held on different courses on the same ski run.

Course

The vertical drop for a GS course must be 250–450 metres for men, 250–400 m for women. The number of gates in this event is 56–70 for men and 46–58 for women. The number of direction changes in a GS course equals 11–15% of the vertical drop of the course in metres, 13–15% for children. As an example, on a 300 m (984 ft) vertical course, there would be between 33 and 45 direction changes for an adult race.

Speed

Although not the fastest event in skiing, on average a well trained racer may reach average speeds of 40 km/h (25 mi/h) in the slalom.

New Zealand

New Zealand (/njuːˈziːlənd/ new-ZEE-lənd, Māori: Aotearoa [aɔˈtɛaɾɔa]) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. The country geographically comprises two main landmasses – that of the North Island, or Te Ika-a-Māui, and the South Island, or Te Waipounamu – and numerous smaller islands. New Zealand is situated some 1,500 kilometres (900 mi) east of Australia across the Tasman Sea and roughly 1,000 kilometres (600 mi) south of the Pacific island areas of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga. Because of its remoteness, it was one of the last lands to be settled by humans. During its long isolation, New Zealand developed a distinctive biodiversity of animal, fungal and plant life. The country's varied topography and its sharp mountain peaks, such as the Southern Alps, owe much to the tectonic uplift of land and volcanic eruptions. New Zealand's capital city is Wellington, while its most populous city is Auckland.

Somewhere between 1250 and 1300 CE, Polynesians settled in the islands that were to become New Zealand, and developed a distinctive Māori culture. In 1642, Abel Tasman, a Dutch explorer, became the first European to sight New Zealand. In 1840, representatives of the British Crown and Māori Chiefs signed the Treaty of Waitangi, making New Zealand a British colony. Today, the majority of New Zealand's population of 4.5 million is of European descent; the indigenous Māori are the largest minority, followed by Asians and Pacific Islanders. Reflecting this, New Zealand's culture is mainly derived from Māori and early British settlers, with recent broadening arising from increased immigration. The official languages are English, Māori and New Zealand Sign Language, with English predominant.

Jamie Anderson

Jamie Anderson may refer to:

See also