Extract from the New York Times:

"At 20, after admiring the soaring studs in the movie “Point Break,” she started sky diving, for which she proved to be well suited. She was already in supreme physical shape from kickboxing and had the workout discipline that serious sky divers need to practice for hours at a time in a wind tunnel. Her dancer’s flexibility, grace and bodily control made her a natural for the choreographed acrobatics of the freestyle discipline.
Her potential as a model was far less certain. Ms. Mancino topped out at only 5-foot-4 and developed a curvy figure rather than the pencil-straight one the industry prefers. The endless succession of cuts and bruises from sports, meanwhile, would cause photographers to gasp in horror and then reach for the concealing makeup.

Her modeling contracts began to include clauses that would forbid her to participate in sports for several weeks leading up to her shoots.

Ms. Mancino said that as she entered her 20s, her modeling agent told her that she needed to do a 180-degree professional flip. Rather than trying to be a model who sometimes played sports, she would be a full-time professional athlete who occasionally modeled. Rather than promoting jeans or dresses, Ms. Mancino would promote herself: as an extreme sports athlete who could leap from a plane, knock you flat with a single kick to the skull, then walk away smiling in Versace..."


(Read all article here)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/31/fashion/31mancino.html?_r=1&pagewanted=2