Julia Mancuso quotes:

The best part about Maui is that I can spend a lot of time outside. My off-season is April, May, and June.

For me, personally, getting a podium is not as important as feeling super comfortable on my skiing.

To me the Olympic spirit embodies the magic of competition, hard work and coming to a point in your career when you're around the best athletes in the world, and having the whole world watching.

When I travel, I always have about 40 pairs of skis with me, plus a ski technician and a ski coach.

I work out a lot, but I like to do action sports. A lot of surfing, mountain-biking.

What has helped me prevent injuries is being connected and having my body aligned. Every morning, I roll out and then work on my core and my balance.

I come to Maui and go surfing, standup paddling, slacklining, swimming, and free-diving.

The truth is, the sport of skiing takes so much effort, setting up and traveling with equipment, that you can only train for a certain number of days in the summer. Most of my peers ski between 40 to 60 days. I ski about 55 days.

I ski fast for me, first and foremost, and I ski fast for my family, and it's always the love that gets me to the podium.

I find music distracting - it takes me out of my head. What I love so much about skiing is the peacefulness.

The moment I think about past letdowns or future hypotheticals, I mentally put myself on shaky ground. If I clear my mind of chatter, I can succeed, just like I did in 2006.

It's cool when people ask me about my gold medal and they say it will last forever. I will try to promote skiing and show everyone it's not just about competition. It's about having fun with your friends in the snow. I want to bring people with less opportunities to the snow, try to use my gold medal to support programs to bring more people to the snow.

I knew I really had to put down a good run. I played it safe, and took risks when I could, and I came in the fastest, I guess.