By Barry Svrluga, Washington Post

Julia Mancuso’s image, calculated or not, was important to her. Winning an Olympic gold medal with a tiara on her head, reveling in the idea that her coaches called her a “princess,” surfing and swimming and being the picture of good health in the waves of Maui, posing seductively in lingerie and ski boots — it all became part of who she was and is, “probably the most honest athlete out there,” according to Chemmy Alcott of Great Britain, her good friend and fellow World Cup skier.

Mancuso was to carry that image into this month’s Vancouver Olympics. Mancuso, not Lindsey Vonn, is the only female American Alpine skier with an Olympic medal to her credit, the gold in the giant slalom won four years ago in the Italian village of Sestriere. Mancuso is the skier featured in fashion shoots in outdoors magazines, her hair done up, her clothes just so, the one

Julia Mancuso

with the blog and the Web site that features a “shopping” section.

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