I’ll be on the Today Show on NBC Monday between 7:30AM and 9AM! Check it out!!!!

I love to Ski. That’s why I ski race. There aren’t too many things in life that I could say “i would love that to be my job” Day in and day out; rain or shine; powder or bullet proof ice. The only thing that gets in the way of being a perfect job is timing.

We have to get on the lift at a certain time. We start out of the gate at an exact time. We get a time at the finish of a run to get judged on. We get one minute every four years to show the world what we are made of. We can loose a year because of something that happens in a split second.

Its the silence when you kick out of the start gate that makes all of the chaos disappear. It makes living out of a suitcase for 6 months seem easy. It makes below freezing temperatures seem normal. It even makes the saying ” i can’t feel my toes” a common thing. And then when you cross the finish line, its the moment of truth.

When time is on my side, I have endless amounts of energy, and everything flows so easy. But when it isn’t, the questions never end. Its the endless chatter in my mind that can be my worst enemy. I want to just shut it out and move on to something to else, but thats not how I can become stronger. Its a never ending quest to get time on my side.

I have to admit that I have had some of the best timing ever. My Olympic Gold was my very first international victory. Timing couldn’t have been better. Then there is the bad timing, like almost every race last season.

It’s really tough to remember the good, when the bad seems to cloud everything up. My teammate Resi Stiegler crashed a few days ago with another season ending injury. That is what made me think a lot about timing. Its an Olympic year, and pretty much the worst timing to get injured. Being in the same shoes as Resi, and knowing what its like to struggle with an injury, I can say its one of the toughest things to wrap your head around. For her its three years in a row now. For me it was just last year, and I was still able to race. Even though the racing was painful and my results even more painful, at least I was able to live in my passion.

So I am thankful, and grateful for my health and being able to live my dream. Race season starts next weekend, and I am ready to get this show on the road! I feel great, and I am just waiting for my mind to follow. Its taking a bit longer than I had hoped to get my confidence back, but its there…. under the small blanket of doubt that I work on shedding every single day, is a defending Olympic Champion, ready to fight back! and get time on her side once again:)

See you at the race…

XOXO,

Jules

A whirlwind of a time…

So I want to get back in touch with you all and give you a little flashback from my summer. I finally uploaded pictures from Chile, and I took some pretty awesome ones. Valle Nevado was beautiful, and these were all taken around sunset.

Since then, flash-forward past the race in Soelden, to that Monday, I had a photo shoot in NYC. Here are some sneak peeks! Look for the January edition of Outside Magazine. It was so much fun. It’s going to be a split cover with Kris Freeman. We got dressed up 50’s style, and the clothes were amazing. Not to mention the radical hairstyles I had was rockin’!

The week after that I headed to LA to spend some time with my sister and friends. My friends are in a band called Colorshow, and they are planning a kick ass show/ celebration party for me in Whistler. They even wrote me a song… I didn’t get to hear it cause I missed their show, sorry guys, but I can’t wait to rock out with them.

My sister and I were aerobics instructors for Halloween. That was fun. We tied for sexiest! ha! I guess people were totally hot in the 80’s and I think I am going to try this one at the gym soon.

After LA, I went home to Maui! It was so nice to get back in the warm water and enjoy the sun. I got to go surfing a few times, and I had my annual fall cleaning sesh! Savers is stoked right now with all of my hand-me-downs. It felt so good to clean out all my old junk and organize everything before leaving for the winter. I know it sounds crazy to make things all nice right before leaving, but it was a lot of fun.

So to the NOW! I am here in Copper Mountain. It is freezing cold!
It was a serious shock to the system, but I am adapting quickly. It was my first day of DH since Portillo! Feels good to go fast. These mornings are early, I have to be on the lift at 620 am… So GOODNIGHT!!!

xo Julia

Visa Go World- Live now

http://goworld.visa.com/

Check it out! I am so honored to be included in the Go World Vancouver team. We had some fun in Maui this summer, and there will be many more great posts to come! Check out the video’s and the commercial spots! Its all so great! Also really inspiring to check out the other athletes.

Enjoy!

Julia