Ivica Kostelić
| Ivica Kostelić | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | November 23, 1979 Zagreb, Socialist Republic of Croatia, SFR Yugoslavia (now Republic of Croatia) |
| Height | 1.82 m (6 ft 0 in) [1] |
| Ski club | Ski club Zagreb [1] |
| World Cup career | |
| Podiums | 43 [2] |
| Wins | 18 [2] |
| Updated on January 30, 2011. | |
| Medal record | ||
|---|---|---|
| Men’s alpine skiing | ||
Representing  Croatia
| ||
| Olympic Games | ||
 |
2010 Vancouver | Super Combined |
|
2010 Vancouver | Slalom |
|
2006 Turin | Combined |
| World Championships | ||
 |
2003 St. Moritz | Slalom |
 |
2011 Garmisch | Super-G |
Ivica Kostelić (Serbo-Croatian pronunciation: [ˈiʋitsa ˈkɔstɛlitɕ]; born November 23, 1979 in Zagreb) is a champion alpine ski racer from Croatia. He won the world championship in slalom in 2003 and three Olympic silver medals in slalom (2010) and combined (2006 and 2010), along with the overall World Cup title in 2011 and 18 World Cup races during his career. He specializes in slalom and combined, but is also one of the few alpine World Cup ski racers able to score points in all disciplines. He is also the elder brother of Janica Kostelić, the winner of three overall World Cup titles and four Olympic gold medals before her retirement due to injuries.
Career
After considerable success in junior competitions, Kostelić's World Cup career has alternated between triumph and injury. His main accomplishments include a World Championship gold medal in slalom in 2003, Olympic silver medal in slalom in Vancouver in 2010, and Olympic silver medals in combined in 2006 (traditional combined) and 2010 (super combined), along with 18 World Cup race victories (11 in slalom, 2 in combined, 3 in super combined, one in parallel-slalom, and one in Super G). He won the slalom World Cup title in 2002, and has also clinched the combined World Cup title for 2011. Since 2008, he has finished among the top six in the overall World Cup standings each season (2008: sixth; 2009: fourth; 2010: fifth). He has also scored points in all disciplines each of those seasons, and his best race results (as of February 2011) are a seventh place in downhill, a second place in giant slalom, and victories in all other disciplines.
Early World Cup years (1998–2005)
Kostelić made his first World Cup start in October 1998 in Sölden, Austria, at the age of 18, but failed to qualify for a second run.[3] He did not finish any of his first 11 World Cup races over 3 seasons, until finally scoring World Cup points for the first time in Sestriere, Italy, in December 2000. His first three seasons on the World Cup all ended prematurely due to injuries, failing to make it past December or January each season. His big breakthrough came during the 2002 season, when he shockingly won the slalom at Aspen, Colorado, in November 2001, his first finish higher than 21st place in any World Cup race. He won two more slaloms that season, and had three additional podiums (top 3), enough to clinch the slalom season title over Bode Miller while avoiding season-ending injury for the first time in his career.
Kostelić would continue his success during the next season, winning three more slalom races by mid-season, and adding a gold medal in slalom in February at the 2003 World Championships in St. Moritz, Switzerland. He would narrowly miss repeating his slalom title, falling to second place as Kalle Palander won four consecutive slaloms in late season to clinch the globe. He would go on to win another slalom race during the 2003–2004 season, the 7th win of his career, before injuries again ended his season prematurely in January. He would return to World Cup competition in time for the start of the 2004–2005 season, but would fail to finish any of his first 7 races that year. Despite a pair of podiums later that season and occasional top-10 finishes, he would not win another World Cup race for nearly three years.
Resurgence as all-event skier (2006– )
Kostelić began his career as a technical specialist, racing only slalom and GS (with an occasional Super G), but started to ski the speed events including downhill during the 2006 season, primarily in order to compete in the new format of super combined, which consists of single runs of downhill and slalom. His broadened portfolio brought quick dividends, with a silver medal in the combined (a traditional combined with a single downhill and two runs of slalom) at the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy, in February. He would follow that success during the 2007 World Cup season with a win in the super combined in Reiteralm, Austria, in December 2006, his eighth World Cup win and first other than slalom.
Starting with the 2008 season, Kostelić joined the select group of World Cup racers who compete in all races. Although he failed to win any World Cup races during the 2008 season, he finished second 4 times and third twice in slalom and super combined races, and for the first time scored points in all disciplines. He would finish second in the combined standings and sixth in the overall. The next season brought another win in slalom, along with three more second places (including in GS for his first time) and a pair of thirds, as he moved up to fourth in the overall standings while again taking second in the slalom standings. Success in all disciplines continued in the 2010 season, with two more World Cup wins in slalom and combined (for a total of 11 in his career) along with a second in Super G, his first podium in a speed event. At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Whistler, he won a pair of silver medals, in slalom and combined.
Kostelić's skiing would reach another level during the 2011 season. Following a third in the season-opening slalom in November, however, he suffered a string of mediocre finishes outside the top-10 for the rest of 2010. Then he opened the New Year with a victory in the first-ever Munich City Event parallel slalom on January 2nd, and took second place four days later in the slalom in his hometown of Zagreb. He followed that up with three more wins over the next two weeks in slalom and super combined at Adelboden and Wengen, Switzerland, to take the lead in the overall World Cup standings for the first time. At the Hahnenkamm races in Kitzbühel, Austria, he had victories in Super-G and combined, plus a second place in slalom, which opened a gap of more than 400 points over his nearest competitors in the overall ranking. A week later, he won the super combined in Chamonix, France, for his seventh victory of January 2011, the most by any alpine ski racer in a single calendar month in World Cup history. He scored points in all 14 World Cup races held in January, including two seconds and two fifths along with top-30 finishes in all three downhills, for a total of 999 points in January alone. In February, Kostelić won a bronze medal in super G at the 2011 World Championships in Garmisch. Finally on March 12, five races before the end of the season, he secured his first overall World Cup title.
Controversy
In 2003, Kostelić gave an interview with the Croatian magazine Nacional in which he (as a student of history) made several statements about World War II, that were interpreted by some Croatian and foreign journalists as displaying sympathy with the Nazi regime.[4] He later apologized [4] and claimed that the allegations were false and his statements were taken out of context."[4][5]
