Janica Kostelić

Janica Kostelić

Disciplines	Slalom, Giant slalom, Super-G, Downhill, Combined
Born	January 5, 1982 (1982-01-05) Zagreb, Republic of Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia (now Republic of Croatia)
Height	1.75 m (5 ft 9 in)
World Cup debut	January 23, 1998 (age 16)
Retired	March 18, 2006 (age 24)
Olympics
Teams	3 - (1998-2006)
Medals	6 (4 gold)
World Championships
Teams	4 - (1999-2005)
Medals	5 (5 gold)
World Cup
Seasons	8 (5 full seasons)
Wins	30
Podiums	55
Overall titles	3
Discipline titles	7
Medal record Competitor for Croatia Woman's Alpine skiing Olympic Games Gold 2006 Turin Combined Gold 2002 Salt Lake Slalom Gold 2002 Salt Lake Giant slalom Gold 2002 Salt Lake Combined Silver 2006 Turin Super-G Silver 2002 Salt Lake Super-G World Championships Gold 2005 Bormio Slalom Gold 2005 Bormio Downhill Gold 2005 Bormio Combined Gold 2003 St. Moritz Slalom Gold 2003 St. Moritz Combined

Janica Kostelić (Croatian pronunciation: [ˈjanitsa ˈkɔstɛlitɕ]; born January 5, 1982) is a retired alpine ski racer from Croatia. She is the only woman to win four gold medals in alpine skiing at the Winter Olympics (in 2002 and 2006), and the only woman to win three alpine skiing gold medals in one Olympics (2002).

Kostelić was the World Cup overall champion in 2001, 2003, and 2006. On January 15, 2006, Kostelić became only the third woman in World Cup history (after Swede Pernilla Wiberg and Austrian Petra Kronberger) to win World Cup races in all of the sport's five disciplines. On February 5, 2006 Kostelić became the second female skier (after Petra Kronberger) to win all five disciplines in one season. She also holds the record for the highest number of points in one season (1970 in 2005-2006). Kostelić is winner of five World Championships gold medals and three Overall Alpine Skiing World Cup titles. She has won a total of 30 World cup races.

Career

Kostelić was born in Zagreb, Croatia, into a winter sports family: her father Ante is also her trainer and her older brother Ivica Kostelić is a renowned ski racer in his own right, the 2011 overall World Cup champion. She first started skiing at the age of three and began training at nine years old. She quickly became successful and won several junior competitions.

At the age of 16, Kostelić was selected for the Croatian team for the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano. Her best result was 8th place in the combined. She competed in all five disciplines. She won her first World Cup slalom in December 1999. Kostelić then suffered knee ligament damage which kept her out of competition until late 2000. She won the World Cup overall title that 2001 season with eight further victories.

2002 Winter Olympics

In the 2002 Winter Olympics she won three gold medals and a silver in alpine skiing disciplines, the first Winter Olympic medals ever for an athlete from Croatia. No other female alpine racer has ever won four medals or three gold medals at a single Olympics.

Kostelić chose not to compete in the Downhill and concentrated on the Combined. She performed well in the downhill run and then won the gold medal after the slalom. She then won a silver medal in the Super-G, just behind Daniela Ceccarelli. The next race was the Slalom, in which Kostelić won her second gold medal, narrowly beating Laure Péquegnot. Her final victory was in the Giant Slalom, a substantial 1.32 seconds ahead of silver medalist Anja Pärson.

Later career

In 2003 she won the World Cup overall title again. In early 2004 she was again taken away from the skiing fields by a knee injury. The injury caused 2004 to be the only year from 1998 to 2006 that she was not recognized as "Croatian Sportswoman of the Year."

In the 2006 season, Kostelić won the World Cup overall title for the third time, but also was in Top 5 in all 4 disciplines, including number 1 in slalom. She won her first World Cup races in giant slalom (2), Super-G, and downhill in 2006.

At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino she won a gold medal in women's alpine combined. That was her fourth Olympic gold medal, making her the most successful female skier in the history of the Olympic Games. This record was set on February 18, 2006, only half an hour after Norway's Kjetil André Aamodt, winner of the men's super-G, became the first Alpine skier in men's competition to win four Olympic gold medals.

She also became the first Alpine skier to win the "Sportswoman of the Year" award at the Laureus World Sports Awards in 2006, in part for her accomplishment of winning races in each discipline during the year.

Due to recurring injuries, Kostelić has not competed since the conclusion of the 2006 season. Not unexpectedly, she announced her retirement a year later on April 19, 2007, citing persistent pain from her injuries. She has not confirmed whether she will attempt a comeback.

World Cup victories

She won 3 overall World Cup titles: 2001, 2003, and 2006. In 2005 she was second overall, just three points behind winner Anja Pärson - the smallest difference between 1st and 2nd place in women's World Cup history.

Kostelic also won the slalom season title three times, the same years that she won the overall titles. She also would have won the season trophy for the combined discipline four times (2001, 2003, 2005–06), but the discipline trophy for the combined was not awarded to women during her career, being added only in 2007.

She won a total of 30 World Cup races, including at least one in every discipline: 20 in Slalom, 6 in Combined, 2 in Giant Slalom, 1 in Super-G, and 1 in Downhill.

Season titles

Season	Discipline
2001	Overall
	Combined
	Slalom
2003	Overall
	Combined
	Slalom
2005	Combined
2006	Overall
	Combined
	Slalom

Individual victories

Season	Date	Location	Race
1999	January 17, 1999	St. Anton, Austria	Combined
2000	December 5, 1999	Serre-Chevalier, France	Slalom
	December 12, 1999	Sestriere, Italy	Slalom
2001	November 18, 2000	Park City, USA	Slalom
	November 26, 2000	Aspen, USA	Slalom
	December 10, 2000	Sestriere, Italy	Slalom
	December 20, 2000		Slalom
	December 29, 2000	Semmering, Austria	Slalom
	January 14, 2001	Flachau, Austria	Slalom
			Combined
	January 26, 2001	Ofterschwang, Germany	Slalom
	February 18, 2001	Garmisch, Germany	Slalom
2002	March 10, 2002	Altenmarkt, Austria	Slalom
2003	November 23, 2002	Park City, USA	Slalom
	December 22, 2002	Lenzerheide, Switzerland	Slalom
			Combined
	December 29, 2002	Semmering, Austria	Slalom
	January 5, 2003	Bormio, Italy	Slalom
	March 13, 2003	Åre, Sweden	Slalom
2005	November 27, 2004	Aspen, USA	Slalom
	February 27, 2005	San Sicario, Italy	Combined
2006	December 21, 2005	Špindlerův Mlýn, Czech Republic	Giant Slalom
	January 14, 2006	Bad Kleinkirchheim, Austria	Downhill
	January 15, 2006		Super-G
	January 22, 2006	Saint Moritz, Switzerland	Combined
	February 5, 2006	Ofterschwang, Austria	Slalom
	March 4, 2006	Hafjell, Norway	Combined
	March 10, 2006	Levi, Finland	Slalom
	March 17, 2006	Åre, Sweden	Slalom
	March 18, 2006		Giant Slalom

[1]

See also

• List of multiple Olympic gold medalists
• List of multiple Olympic gold medalists at a single Games

External links

• Official website
• Olympic.org IOC official site - "The Snow Queen of Croatia"
• FIS-ski.com - race results - Janica Kostelić
• FIS-ski.com - World Cup season standings - Janica Kostelić - 1999-2006
• Ski-DB.com - Results - Janica Kostelic

Olympic Games
Preceded by Vedran Pavlek	Flagbearer for Croatia Nagano 1998 Salt Lake City 2002 Turin 2006	Succeeded by Jakov Fak