Julia Pereira de Sousa Mabileau Wiki: Snowboarder, Net Worth, Silver Medal & Facts To Know

Olympic athletes train for years and can participate in several Olympic Games before reaching their dreams, standing on that podium, holding a medal for the sport and country they love. Some don't even get to that, but French snowboarder Julia Pereira de Sousa Mabileau achieved all of that at just sixteen.

Pereira de Sousa Mabileau just finished her first full World Cup season, where she competed in snowboard cross, a downhill snowboard race, known for having some pretty epic collisions. In the first half of the World Cup season, Pereira de Sousa Mabileau qualified for the Olympic Games. Her goal was to make it to the snowboard cross finals. With some fantastic first races, that's where she ended up, competing against athletes twice her age, including American Lindsey Jacobellis, who took fourth.

And lose she didn't, surprising everyone by catching up with Jacobellis and overtaking bronze medalist Eva Samková of the Czech Republic to earn a silver medal behind Italian gold medalist Michela Moioli. Obviously, placing at the Olympics is huge, but at only 16? On Twitter, it was quickly pointed out that by earning her silver medal, Julia Pereira de Sousa Mabileau became the youngest French Winter Olympic medalist in history.

The 2018 Olympic Winter Games are serious business, and on the course, Pereira was nothing but serious. Off of it, though, she took time to be a sixteen-year-old, posing for a photo for Instagram with the Winter Olympic mascot.

Even on the slopes she played around for the camera, taking another photo before heading down for warm-ups.

After generating such a buzz on social media across Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook, it would be easy for all of the winter's success to go to Pereira de Sousa Mabileau's head, but she stayed focused after the Olympic Games, ready to finish her first ever World Cup circuit. Snowboard cross has both individual and team events, and individually, Pereira de Sousa Mabileau didn't make the podium at the finals in Switzerland. But with her nineteen-year-old partner Manon Petit-Lenoir, the two girls took second overall for the team event.

The snowboard season is officially over, and sponsors are pouring in for Julia Pereira de Sousa Mabileau, including the natural water company Aur'a France. But now it's time for this medalist to get off the snow and onto the sand before she starts another vigorous year of training.

She's even found a way to train on the sand, even if it's at the park rather than the beach. Apparently part of training for snowboard cross involves keeping your balance while jumping on top of balls.

Julia Pereira de Sousa Mabileau doesn't intend to slow down. She'll be twenty at the next Winter Olympics, and it feels like silver won't be enough for her then. She's got four years to train for that, though, and when she's on the podium next time, it won't be a surprise.