Worlds: Mancuso struggles run deep

The tiara has lost its glitter.

When Julia Mancuso pulled up midway through the super combined downhill Friday, the unsaid told the story. For the U. S. alpine superstar and Olympic gold medalist things cannot get much worse.  Mancuso is struggling to arrest what has been a rapidly downward spiraling season. Her results have been dismal and her self-confidence is admittedly on the wane.

“My body is just not working well for me,” Mancuso said. “I just need to take one step at a time. I just feel something is going on neurologically. I feel good but I am not getting the good angles in the turns that I should be.”The tiara has lost its glitter.

When Julia Mancuso pulled up midway through the super combined downhill Friday, the unsaid told the story. For the U. S. alpine superstar and Olympic gold medalist things cannot get much worse.  Mancuso is struggling to arrest what has been a rapidly downward spiraling season. Her results have been dismal and her self-confidence is admittedly on the wane.

“My body is just not working well for me,” Mancuso said. “I just need to take one step at a time. I just feel something is going on neurologically. I feel good but I am not getting the good angles in the turns that I should be.”

“I am at the point where I feel I need a lot more preparation to feel ready to race,” Mancuso told NBC broadcaster and former Ski Racing editor Steve Porino. “So, I might just focus my efforts on GS and try to get my confidence back there. Once you have that back, then it spills over into the other disciplines.”

Just past midway through the super combined downhill as she entered the forest section of the track, Mancuso seemed to get bounced off line and threw the skis sideways. Pulling up she leaned on her poles and then exited the course indirectly, ignominiously climbing under the fencing and skiing off.

Mancuso, who has been burdened with health issues and equipment concerns for virtually all of this season, took it on herself to pull out of the downhill here tomorrow.

“It was definitely her decision,” said Jim Tracy, head women’s coach for the U. S. Team. “For her it is the right thing.”

Two years ago, Mancuso adopted the Bode Miller approach to the World Cup circuit, arranging for her own RV, traveling on her own and to some extent, training on her own. For a while it seemed to work as her results in the 2007 – 2008 season were solid, no wins but frequent World Cup podiums. But this season, save for a single sixth place, results have been shockingly poor.

This past spring Mancuso focused on climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro with her pal and fellow racer, Chemmy Alcott of Great Britain. The climb was a successful effort for charity, something that Mancuso puts a lot of work and time into, however, “Kili” is a tough challenge and hard on anyone’s body, even a fit world-class ski racer. It was a lot harder than she expected, Mancuso admitted on her web page in a post climb blog.

Back spasms cut short summer training in New Zealand as did the Beijing summer Olympics where she traveled to do video blogs for NBC’s Olympic broadcast. The Games cut into two weeks of potential training time in the southern hemisphere.

Back in New Zealand in the late summer Mancuso got injured in a fall and did not train for ten days or more, according to her general manager, Stephan Boeker.  Both her hip and her back are still problematic, he says. Boeker also indicates that Mancuso is refocusing her approach to ski racing. “We all go for things when we know what we want,” Boeker says. “That is what it is for her, determine what you want and go get it.”

What is more important, Tracy says, is that Mancuso is beginning to communicate. According to him, “She is talking to the right people.” That is good news for Jesse Hunt, alpine director of the team. “Julia is a real talent,” he emphasizes. “If she wants it, we will provide whatever it takes to get her back on track.”

Inside the Mancuso camp there is pressure to have the intensely competitive racer pull out of the remaining World Cup races. According to sources who asked to remain anonymous the suggestion is not going over well with Mancuso who doesn’t “want to be seen as a quitter.” Her result in the upcoming World Championship GS next Thursday will most likely set her plans. Meanwhile Mancuso is training with a body that just “isn’t working.”