As recently as this past Sunday, Julia Mancuso still held out hope that she would qualify for her fifth Olympic Winter Games. “I’m not racing,” she tweeted from a downhill race in Austria’s Bad Kleinkirchheim on Sunday. “Saving my energy and hoping to have my best races in Cortina!!! One more week to qualify for the Olympics!” But the pain from a degenerative right hip has proved too much. Mancuso – or “Super Jules” as she has often been called – announced her retirement from alpine ski racing on Friday.

“It’s really hard,” Mancuso said last fall, when asked if this would be her last season competing. “I don’t want to ever give up, and I’ve worked so hard to come back from this injury. It’s not easy.” While she will not compete in PyeongChang next month, Mancuso will serve as a reporter and features contributor for NBC.