Julia Mancuso finalizes contract with Stoeckli

By Published On: May 17th, 2015Comments Off on Julia Mancuso finalizes contract with Stoeckli

Although speculation on the anticipated equipment change started back in March, 31-year-old American ski racing star Julia Mancuso has only now officially signed a contract with ski manufacturer Stoeckli to utilize the Swiss product over the next three years including the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games.

Mancuso, who formerly skied on HEAD product as a member of the World Cup Rebels, has also been a Volkl/Lange and Rossignol athlete in previous seasons. The four-time Olympic and five-time World Championships medalist collected one World Cup podium result in the 2014-15 season (contributing to the American podium sweep by finishing third in the Lake Louise downhill) but had to end her racing year early due to a hip injury.

“The three-year contract has been signed,” said Stoeckli CEO Marc Glaeser. The company had previously courted Lara Gut and Tina Weirather, to no avail, after learning its Slovenian star Tina Maze intended to take a year off from competition in the 2015-16 season. Gut ultimately switched from Rossignol to HEAD while Weirather chose to remain loyal to Atomic.

While Stoeckli is excited to capitalize on Mancuso’s wide-ranging appeal in the sports industry – her Facebook page alone has nearly 350,000 followers – the brand also remains realistic about its expectations for her future success and is not simply trying to replace Maze with a new skier.

“The resulting gap cannot be easily filled,” Glaeser noted regarding Maze’s absence in the 2015-16 season. Additionally, Mancuso is unlikely to be in contention for season globes like the Slovene. “A podium rank is possible,” Glaeser told Zentral+ magazine.

Mancuso will return to working with ski technician Andrea Vianello, with whom she previously worked during her time on Rossignol, when she returns to snow. Vianello had been Maze’s technician with Stoeckli for the past several seasons.

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About the Author: C.J. Feehan

Christine J. Feehan is a USSA Level 300 coach who spent more than a decade training athletes at U.S. ski academies - Burke, Sugar Bowl, and Killington - before serving as Editor in Chief at Ski Racing Media through 2017. She worked for the FIS on the World Cup tour for three years and then settled into her current home in Oslo, Norway.