Racy! Olympic skier launches lingerie line

NEW YORK — Julia Mancuso wants the other Olympic skiers to eat her Alpine snow dust at the Vancouver Games. After that, they can "kiss my tiara," she says.

Kiss My Tiara is the name of her new underwear line, which she hopes to expand to other lingerie. She had 500 thongs and 500 boyshorts made up under the label and will give them out at the Olympics to friends, family and even competitors.

"You've got to start somewhere," she says.

Fashion has always been an interest, Mancuso explains, but her competitive skiing schedule didn't allow her to fully explore it.

Her little cottage business evolved from lucky underwear she began wearing at the Salt Lake City Games in 2002. The tiara part came from the "Super Jule" crown she wore when she won the gold in giant slalom at the Turin Games in 2006.

Undergarments are a fashion statement she can make every day in a way that she couldn't with a dress or even a T-shirt, she says.

So what does Mancuso wear under her racing suit?

The boyshort. Blue ones have a tiara on thick waistbands. Thongs have a miniature dangling jeweled tiara.

"I was trying to be a little sassy," Mancuso says.