KAPA‘A — When the Alpine skiing super-G event goes off today at the Vancouver Olympics, the Summers Realty office in Kapa‘a will have all eyes on the screen. “She’s got two silver medals with two more events to go,” said
KAPA‘A — When the Alpine skiing super-G event goes off today at the Vancouver Olympics, the Summers Realty office in Kapa‘a will have all eyes on the screen.
“She’s got two silver medals with two more events to go,” said Tom Summers, uncle of Olympic medalist Julia Mancuso, who will be in the super-G event.
Mancuso became the first American woman to win a medal in women’s combined or super-combined since Gretchen Fraser got silver at the 1948 St. Mortiz Games, states an Associated Press story, Thursday.
She became the first U.S. woman with three Olympic medals in Alpine skiing, matching Bode Miller for the most Alpine medals by an American, according to AP.
“They are finally getting Julia on the Web,” said Linda Summers while thumbing through the NBC Olympics Web site. “They keep talking about Lindsey Vonn, but what about Julia who grew up here?”
Tom said Julia’s dad arrived on Kaua‘i in 1979 and lived here on the Wailua River until 1989.
Julia was born on March 9, 1984, in Reno, Nevada where the family had property.
“But she was raised here because the family spent part of the year here and part of the year in Reno,” Tom said. “She went to preschool at the All Saints Preschool until her family moved to Maui.”
Tom said Julia was always a skier because her father was into skiing and bought property close to where they could ski.
“She grew up water skiing on the Wailua River when she wasn’t in Reno,” Tom said. “She was skiing from the time she could walk.”
Julia is a technical skier, her uncle said while looking at a poster showing her on the slopes of Torino.
“She’s not as big as Vonn so cannot rely on her weight for momentum. She’s 145 pounds compared to Vonn’s 175 pounds so she’ll have to rely on the technical side of the sport to win. She’s one of the smaller girls out there,” he said. “But she’s very determined and strong-willed.”
The Summers Realty office has a section devoted to Julia’s achievements including calendars, posters, and pictures of Tom and Julia, Tom wearing one of the gold medals Julia earned in Torino.
“They even did a photo shoot for a Wheaties box, but it never ran,” Tom said, pointing to a mock up of a Wheaties box on the wall. “Maybe now, they’ll run the box. They have the photos already.”
Tom said as a young girl, Julia was a heavyset baby and he remembers her running into a wall, falling, and getting up laughing where other babies would be crying.
“She is really tough,” Tom said. “But she is the happiest, easiest-going, fun-loving, sweet and wholesome girl I’ve known.”
For more information, visit www.nbcolympics.com or www.juliamancuso.com.
