DIFFERENT STROKE UNORTHODOX WORKS FOR MANCUSO, WHO WINS GOLD MEDAL.

SESTRIERE, Italy - If you're searching for normal, exit now, and quickly.

Julia Mancuso won't fit any preconceived notion of athletic normalcy. Won't even resemble it.

Not from her background, her training, her pre-race diet or sleeping habits on the eve of the biggest race of her young life, to her forgetting her Olympic credential.

Throw it all together, and then throw it out.

Because today and forever more, Mancuso is an Olympic champion.

An unexpected one, which is apparently the only way the U.S. ski team can medal, but still a stunning champion of Friday's women's giant slalom.

Mancuso, 21, never has won a World Cup race. She only made it to the podium at all late this season.

``The lesson to be learned is - it doesn't matter,'' Mancuso said. ``The only thing that matters is believing in yourself, kicking out of the start gate and leaving everything else behind.''

Like that nifty little dinner she had Thursday night. Ummm, can you say Pop Tarts?

``My sister usually cooks for me but she went out, I was waiting for her but didn't come back, so I ate some Pop Tarts and made leftover pasta - which probably wasn't the best diet,'' she said.

Like Bode Miller and Daron Rahlves, she has her own RV here, but Thursday decided to join the gang in the athlete's village.

``I went into the village and was hanging out where the men's team was,'' she said. ``I was really into figure skating, watching the last 12 skaters ... and went to bed too late.''

When she did arrive Friday morning, she discovered she had forgotten her Olympic credential.

``I was like, 'Oh, yeah, might need that.' ''

They let her ski without it the first run, and her competitors were probably wishing they hadn't.

It was snowing and foggy, the light flat and hardly the best of conditions, but she blazed down the course in 1:00.89 - .18 ahead of Olympic favorite Anja Paerson of Sweden.

That meant Mancuso would the be the last of the top-30 ranked skiers to go in the second, and final, run.

By then, Finland's Tanja Poutiainen was waiting at the bottom of the course, leading by .47 over Sweden's Anna Ottosson and no doubt hoping the young American who had never led after a first run would crack.

But up at the start gate, Mancuso flashed a big smile. If she was nervous, her next career move is in acting.

Because of her Italian heritage, she's been somewhat adopted by the locals here. She heard the course workers and her friends and coaches shout her name as she approached the gate. What was to worry?

``I think the bad weather made it seem less like the Olympics,'' she said. ``You always dream of the Olympics as being in perfect weather, tons of people there and all the pressure.

``But it was sort of just another day on a stormy course, and that sort of helped me take the pressure of the Olympics.''

She also had another advantage. It isn't uncommon for the Squaw Valley native to ski in similar conditions around Lake Tahoe.

``I grew up skiing in bad weather, in powder,'' Mancuso said. ``I guess the conditions were similar. It felt like home, so I dug into my boots and trusted myself.''

Her recent strong showing on the World Cup tour had given her confidence, yet her aim was something less than gold.

``I wasn't thinking gold,'' she said. ``I was thinking podium.''

Once again, she attacked the mountain. She turned in the second-fastest time in the second run - just .01 behind Ottosson. Her two-run total easily surpassed Poutiainen for the gold. Ottosson settled for bronze.

``It was perfect timing,'' U.S. women's coach Patrick Riml said. ``She skied beautifully.''

In their last event, the U.S. women finally had a medal.

At the finish line, she thrust fists into the air, kissed one of her skis, draped herself in the American flag, grappled with disbelief.

``I was like, `I can't believe I just won the Olympics,' '' she said. ``It's weird to say that.''

Watching from the stands was her father, Ciro Mancuso, who once ran one of the largest drug cartels in U.S. history. Ciro previously served minor time after reaching a plea bargain that had him giving up the names of more than 20 conspirators to prosecutors.

Yeah, not exactly your normal family background.

Ciro spends much of his time in Maui, so Julia does her summer conditioning in Hawaii. Not your typical training regimen.

``I have been doing summer training in Maui using a vibrating plate that used to be used by (Alberto) Tomba,'' she said.

``I think the cool thing about skiing is it's such a diverse sport, such an athletic sport, there are many ways to get to the top.''

During the season she tries to mimic the training of an Austrian great, using Hermann Maier's trainer Heinrich Bergmuller.

She does what she can, where she can. She's a free spirit and seemingly at peace with herself.

``She's really crazy,'' said Austria's Kathrin Zettel. ``She makes skiing look very easy.''

Mancuso might be unorthodox, but she is an Olympic champion. One the women's U.S. ski team desperately needed.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) American Julia Mancuso reacts after finishing first Friday in the giant slalom, giving the U.S. women's ski team its only medal of the Turin Games. It is the first U.S., Women's ski gold since Picabo Street in 1998.

Photos by Michael Kappeler/Getty Images

(3) Julia Mancuso keeps her balance in difficult conditions to win gold.

Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images

Box:

SUPER FINISH