Suddenly, Vonncouver is feeling a little like Vancuso.
And it couldn’t be a more riveting tug of wills, with Vonn and Mancuso having been close friends early in their ski careers, but now managing a much cooler, prickly rivalry. And like all rivalries, it features two opposing characters, with clashing ideologies grasping for their portion of the spotlight. Vonn is the sweet, pretty, wholesome one. The one with massive expectations, who sat out the Opening Ceremony while nursing an injured shin and baking banana bread in her condo. Mancuso is the feistier, wilder surfer chick who hawks an underwear line called “Kiss My Tiara.” The one who arrived in Vancouver with almost no expectations, and was slightly late for Opening Ceremony because she was playing a last-minute game of “Dance Dance Revolution” in the athletes’ Olympic Village.
In general, they are viewed differently inside the U.S. skiing family. Mancuso is seen as a freer, defiant spirit, cut from a cloth that is something similar to the enigmatic Bode Miller. Vonn is thought to be the harder working one, the master of her craft, and the good soldier in the U.S. program...
And both have taken swipes at each other in the past for the way they prepare for skiing greatness. Vonn has shown some disdain for Mancuso using a private bus rather than traveling with the U.S. team in Europe, and for dryland training away from the program. On the other side, Mancuso has talked about Vonn’s approach to skiing being too analytical and boring.