When it comes to the Winter Games, it’s all about going big or going home — and for good reason. You don’t endure a grueling, lifelong pursuit of perfection just to play it cool when the lights are the brightest on the world’s biggest stage. Like Team USA’s intrepid skiing icon Lindsey Vonn, you lay it all on the line with every drop of your legendary moxie and accept the results of your effort, knowing you did it. Tears, maybe — but regrets, no.
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Watch the 2026 Winter Olympics on NBC and Peacock.
Those are moments that continue to define the spirit of the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics on NBC and Peacock, but behind every Olympic triumph or tragedy lies a story about commitment — commitment to training and commitment to nutrition. While the physical demands of training like a gold medal-winning Winter Olympian are often out of reach, you don’t have to be a pro to eat like a pro. But don’t take our word for it — hear how former Team USA Olympians Apolo Ohno and Julia Mancuso say proper nutrition fuels peak performance.
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Who are former Olympians Apolo Ohno and Julia Mancuso?
Born May 22, 1982, in Seattle, Washington, Apolo Ohno is a former Olympic speed skater, and Julia Mancuso, born March 9, 1984, in Reno, Nevada, is a former Olympic alpine skier. During their Olympic tenure, Ohno and Mancuso dominated their respective sports with Ohno capturing a total of eight medals for Team USA and Mancuso scoring another four.
Though they’re retired from Olympic competition and now relish serving as ambassadors for their sports, the Winter Games haven’t lost any of their renowned luster.
“I love all of it,” Ohno tells NBC Insider. “I have so much respect for all these athletes. This is their time. …These are stories of grit. These are stories of determination. These are stories of consistency, of having this conviction of belief when no one else does around you… these are the beautiful stories that we can draw from these types of games, and these Team USA athletes are displaying that.”
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How Apolo Ohno and Julia Mancuso Fuel Peak Performance
As former Winter Olympians who’ve reached the zenith of their sport, Mancuso and Ohno know that greatness demands more than elite training — it requires proper nutrition, too.
“Training was the foundation… especially in Olympic seasons,” noted Ohno to NBC Insider. “I’m no longer a professional athlete… but I’m still training, and I view the nutrition component as being almost equally as important than it is now.”
Mancuso, who is a busy mom in addition to living an active lifestyle, explains how a poor diet can tank more than just your athleticism.
“Nutrition plays a huge role,” adds Mancuso, who made the US ski team at just 15. “When I was an athlete, if I wasn’t eating well, and I wasn’t focusing on nutrition, my body felt it. And now, if I skip a meal and don’t focus on nutrition, I really feel it in my mind.”
Ohno agrees, noting that his mind is now the “asset” — not those gold medal-producing quads.
“To feel well, I need to make good decisions, and that comes from the types of foods that I’m eating,” says Ohno.
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That’s one of the reasons why he and Mancuso partnered with Factor for their “Gold Collection” of dietician-approved meals. That said, you don’t have to dominate the downhill or the ice to eat like these gold medal-winning Olympians.
“I’m no longer a pro, but this is what we used to eat and how we view nutrition,” continues Ohno, who enjoys the speed of the Factor system.
“No one’s getting less busy,” he adds. “We’re all getting more busy. There’s more responsibilities. If there’s one less thing that I have to worry about that I know will help me show up as Apolo’s best self. That’s what the goal is for all the folks that are looking at Factor as their own partner, right in their own fitness and health journey.”
Mancuso, who’s married to professional surfer Dylan Fish, say the nutrition system is an absolute game changer for her family.
“From being an athlete…to being a mom and realizing how hard it can be to plan for the week and make all the food, I think that’s the number one thing that I struggle with,” reveals Mancuso, who took home the gold in the giant slalom at the 2006 Turin Games. “So I was really excited to… inspire other people… There’s tools out there for you to make your life easier and to just set yourself up for success and to really unlock your peak performance.”
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On Lindsey Vonn’s crash, push to return to competition
Maintaining peak performance for Ohno and Mancuso, like all Olympians, is a crucial element if your goal’s to cement a spot on the podium, but it’s not the only thing. The deeply intrinsic desire to compete and excel is equally important for all medal seekers, but it can also be their downfall.
Mancuso, who competed on Team USA alongside Vonn at multiple Olympics, said that Vonn’s will to compete was never going to hold her back at Milan Cortina, despite tearing her ACL just one week earlier.
“I can’t even imagine what she was going through,” opines Mancuso. “Lindsey’s devastating crash, I think everyone wishes we could go back in time and rewind that, and for it not to happen. But it was the only way, like for her, there was no other way she was gonna go out and try to win gold, or obviously the worst possible thing happen… …but that she also doesn’t regret it.”
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In defending Vonn against any potential criticisms, Ohno illuminates the weight of an athlete’s ambition on the calculus in question.
“It’s easy, you know, someone who’s not in the sport, maybe on their armchair to make criticisms about what someone should or shouldn’t do,” Ohno says to NBC Insider. “With Lindsay, you know, as great as she is, she made the decision that she was going to race, and she’s got all the information from her team to do so. And I think as exactly what Julia said, like, she wouldn’t probably have it any other way.”
“It’s either she’s going to go as hard as she can, and it’s either she’s going to win gold or is going to have, like, a spectacular crash. That’s exactly what she had.”
“So, underneath the layers of the results is the real texture of the Olympic Games,” Ohno divulges. “That’s the reality. Breezy [Johnson’s] story is so remarkable. I hope that they give her more attention, because it’s just so incredible what she’s gone through as an athlete, the multiple injuries, not being able to compete for a year, the internal struggle that occurs here.”
“So that’s what that’s what draws us in these human stories. I’ve fallen in love with the Olympics and all these amazing athletes.”
