Disciplines Downhill, Super G Medals 1 (0 gold) World cup debut March 7, 1997 Teams 4 – (1999–2005) Retired May 2006 | Medals 0 Height 1.75 m Teams 2 – (1998, 2002) Name Jonna Mendes | |
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Club Heavenly Ski &
Snowboard Fnd Born March 21, 1979 (age 45)
Santa Cruz, California ( 1979-03-21 ) | ||
Jonna Mendes (born March 31, 1979) is a former World Cup alpine ski racer from the United States. She specialized in the speed events and raced for nine seasons on the World Cup circuit. Mendes competed in two Winter Olympics and four World Championships. She was the bronze medalist in the Super G at the 2003 World Championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland.
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Born in Santa Cruz on the California coast, Mendes began skiing at age four when her family moved to the Lake Tahoe area in the Sierra Nevada mountains. She made her World Cup debut in March 1997 and retired from international competition in May 2006.
Mendes won three U.S. titles: two in giant slalom (2001, 2002) and one in downhill (2004). The first came at The Big Mountain in Whitefish, Montana, but was followed by a broken foot the next day, incurred in a crash near the end of her second run in the slalom. She repeated the next year at her home venue of Squaw Valley, and won the last at Alyeska in Alaska.
After racing
In 2011, Mendes became the recruiting coordinator for the new Sun Valley Ski Academy in Sun Valley, Idaho. She attended college in New York City and had been working with the U.S. Ski Team's national alpine development system for the previous four years.