Juli Furtado

Who is Juli Furtado?

Juliana Furtado is an American mountain biker, who began her sports career in skiing. From 1980 to 1987, she was the youngest member of the U.S. National ski team. After undergoing several knee operations, Furtado retired from skiing and switched to mountain biking.

In 1989, Furtado won the US National Road Championship and in 1990 she won the cross-country event in the first official Mountain Bike World Championship, held in Durango, Colorado. In 1992 she won the downhill world championship. In 1996, Furtado won both the World Cup and the NORBA cross-country championships. She also participated in the Atlanta Olympics.

Furtado retired from competitive mountain biking in 1997 after being diagnosed with lupus, though her disease is under control and she still rides solo. She became the mother of a son in 2008, and is currently the director of grass-roots sponsorship and marketing for Santa Cruz Bicycles, in Santa Cruz, California. One of Santa Cruz Bikes' products, the "Juliana" cross-country aluminum MTB, is named for her.

Furtado was inducted into the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame in 1993 and the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame in 2005.