Janica Kostelić



Janica Kostelić ( Zagreb , January 51982 ) is a Croatianskier in alpine skiing .

In 1998 she took at the age of 16 for the first time in the Winter Olympics in Nagano . But her real international breakthrough came in the 2000-2001 season. In 2001 she won the first World Cup for alpine skiing .

At the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City in 2002, she won three gold and one silver medal in alpine skiing. She was Olympic champion in the slalom, giant slalom and combined. She became second in the super-G, where she missed the gold medal just five hundredths.

In 2003 she won again the World Cup alpine skiing, but in 2004 she was a knee injury does not compete for the victory. In 2005, she finished second in the overall World Cup after Anja Pärson. In 2006, she won for the third time in her career, the overall World Cup alpine skiing. In the 2005-2006 season they won World Cup races in each discipline. She is the first woman who succeeds.

During the Winter Games in Turin in 2006 she again won gold in the combination. They also won the silver in the Super-G and was fourth in the slalom. Bringing its total came to Olympic gold medals at four times and twice silver.

In the 2006-2007 season, they will not come into action because of chronic knee and back injuries. On April 19, 2007, at only age 25, she announced her final farewell to the sport of skiing.