Meet U.S. Ski Team Alum Juliana Furtado

Juliana 'Juli' Furtado. You hear the name and think mountain biking, World Championships medals, bike designer and Mountain Bike Hall of Fame member. But did you know Furtado was a U.S. Ski Team member?

Furtado grew up racing in Vermont and attended Stratton Mountain School (SMS) before being named to the U.S. Ski Team. She was the youngest member on the Team, but a gnarly slalom skier. “I was terrified of downhill,” she laughs. Furtado came onto the team like a whirlwind—racing NorAms, Europa Cups and a few World Cups with her trademark voracity—but was plagued by injuries. “You don’t want to know how many knee surgeries I had,” remembers Furtado. “That’s what truly ended my career.”

Furtado didn’t come from a ski racing family. She attended SMS on scholarship as her parents weren’t in the picture and her sister was in prison. After she retired from the U.S. Ski Team, she depended on friends for places to crash. “I was lost,” she said. “I left the team and had no idea what to do with my life.”

But one of those friends told her about University of Colorado at Boulder and she scored a scholarship. She was ski racing for the school, but her knees wouldn’t let her race in the way she wanted. That’s when she discovered her love for bikes—cross training by riding on the road. It was fast and easy for her; she was strong from skiing and in good shape. “I kind of stumbled into biking,” Furtado said. “And then I ended up winning a Collegiate National Road Title my first year racing.” One thing led to another and she grabbed a spot on the 1989 National Championships team…and won.

At that time, mountain biking was just starting to take off, and Furtado jumped on the bandwagon. When asked why she switched to a mountain bike, Furtado shrugged. “I just tried it and liked it,” she said. “I liked being in the mountains. And turns out, I was good at it.”

“Good at it” was an understatement, as the former ski racer promptly began demolishing her competition. She won the first-ever World Cross Country Championships in 1990, took the World Downhill Championships in 1992 and fulfilled her dream of making the Olympics in 1996 as a mountain biker. “I always thought I would go to the Olympics as a ski racer,” shrugged Furtado. “But it worked out!”

Although Furtado was determined to have a ‘what’s next’ plan when she retired from mountain biking, the end came quickly when she was diagnosed with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, an autoimmune disease. Suddenly out of the racing world again, she floundered, but joined up with Santa Cruz Bicycles in their marketing/sponsorship department.

“It was better than working for a bank, which I thought I was going to do when I was done racing,” said Futado. “But I knew there was something missing.” That’s when she pitched Santa Cruz on producing a women-specific mountain bike. Thus, the Juliana was born. It was the first-ever women-specific mountain bike out there, and led to the successful launch of Juliana Bicycles, a line of women’s mountain bikes built with the same quality and technology as Santa Cruz. “I hated to use my name when I attended bike events. I didn’t want to live my life as a ‘former mountain bike racer,’” Furtado commented. “But this seemed like the time and place for it.”

While she still works at Santa Cruz and lives in Santa Cruz, CA, Furtado has started working more with her old team in Park City, UT. “When I quit the U.S. Ski Team, I had no where to go and no direction,” said Furtado. “I don’t want other kids to experience that.” She joined up with a number of U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) trustees, donors and former athletes to work with current U.S. Ski Team, U.S. Freeskiing and U.S. Snowboarding members to figure out what’s next after life as a professional athlete. “We’re building out a curriculum to help athletes with finding careers and internships, and how to transition from the teams,” relayed Furtado.

For the first time this summer, she helped the new USSA Leadership Program roll out, working with athletes on networking, college placement, engaging alumni, public speaking, financial planning and more. Furtado spoke on a panel alongside former athletes Libby Ludlow (alpine), Luke Bodensteiner (nordic), Trace Worthington (freestyle) and Tiger Shaw (alpine), who all worked together to tell the athletes what they did when they retired from their sports.

So, does Furtado still ski? “Oh yeah, absolutely,” she said. “I live in Santa Cruz now, but whenever I get out here, I get on snow. I’m stoked to be working with the ski team again. I have such a passion for this sport.”