Extraordinary Health Magazine EH Magazine VOl 32 | Page 54

heart of a
Champion
But Julia’s destiny of life on the slopes
has gone much further. Julia retired
from competing in slopestyle to focus
on competing in Alpine events, and
has become the first winter athlete
for Paraguay. And soon, Julia will
be able to add author to her list of
accomplishments.
“Until the end of the 2013 season, I was
competing under the United States and
after my first World Cup podium in Sierra Nevada, Spain, I made
the decision to switch countries,” says Julia, who up until that
moment, was invited and planned on competing in the U.S.
Olympic qualifiers for slopestyle leading up to Sochi. “I have
been a dual citizen my entire life so I was able to compete under
Paraguay as soon as I was released from the U.S. program, so I
contested to keep my FIS points and was able to have those carry
over on to my Paraguayan FIS profile.”
Being able to bring winter sports to a country for the first time
is an honor in which Julia feels fortunate to play a role.
“I saw this as an opportunity to bring winter sports to a country
that had never participated in a Winter Olympics,” says Julia
of the lengthy process of having Paraguay join with the
International Ski Federation. “It’s an opportunity
to reconnect with my birthplace along with
feeling so grateful for my family who raised me.”
JULIA
MARINO’S
J ulia credits Garden of Life’s pre-workout SPORT Energy + Focus
as the best she has tried for helping feel level-headed and awake.
With good nutrition on board, her training program is intense.
During dry-land training, typically Julia spends two sessions in
the gym doing exercises with her trainer and a session by herself.
Ski weeks include engaging in her trainer’s maintenance
exercises between snow days. In addition to training, Julia
has a lot of responsibility as a one-person team.
“I spend a lot of time completing interviews, planning my
training trips, and working on the design process for my Olympic
ceremony and competition uniforms,” says Julia, who is signed
with Los Angeles-based Ella Bee Media Agency. “We work
together on obtaining sponsors and I work on my social media
handles to share my Olympic experience.” 
In her spare time, Julia works on her book which she says will
focus on more than the Olympics and skiing to include outreach,
especially to young people.
“Being adopted is a story on its own and I lost my dad when
I was 15, so I can relate to kids who have lost a parent. Plus,
I was a student athlete and tore my ACL so I know what it’s like
to come back from that,” says Julia, who devotes time to Children’s
Hospital in Boston inspiring fitness and healthy lifestyles.
Julia’s parents also adopted her brother and
encouraged the children to succeed beyond
sports. Julia went on to graduate from the
University of Colorado at Boulder and after the
2014 Olympics, she considered her next steps.
She had suffered a few really tough injuries
doing slopestyle, a sport that involves jumping
and flipping. Her decision to refocus on Alpine
skiing meant relearning how to ski to master the
technical style.
inspiring journey
by Kelly Merritt
“The most challenging part of year-round
training at this level is that I don’t get to spend
a lot of time at home in my own bed and the
locations are very isolated,” she says.
Julia often finds herself eight or nine hours from
a major city where nutrition can be a challenge.
In those remote areas she relies on Garden of Life®.
The undying Olympic spirit pits the best athletes in a
competition against each other and themselves. From the
opening ceremony to the gold medal, we watch, cheering
on our modern day warriors. We relate to their struggles,
hope for their success and cheer on their determination.
We become engrossed in their stories, but none so unique
as that belonging to Julia Elizabeth Marino.
52 Vol 32 • Extraordinary Health ™
Julia has been skiing since she was two years old and
began competing at age 12. Julia always knew she
wanted to be an Olympic athlete but things could have
gone much differently. Adopted as a baby, she grew
up in the United States but was born in Paraguay. Her
loving parents encouraged their children to pursue their
dreams. For Julia, that now includes being a hopeful for
the PyeongChang Winter Olympics in Alpine ski events.
“Feeling good has to do with what I put in my body, so
for that reason I almost need a separate suitcase for my
Garden of Life products,” she says. “No matter where
in the world I am, even if the food is horrible, it’s okay
because I can get consistent protein from the Garden of
Life SPORT product line and I use the Organic Plant-
Based Recovery every night.”
Vol 32 • Extraordinary Health ™ 53