Croatia’s citizens as well as the government bask in Janica Kostelic’s triumph at Winter Olympics.
by Lovorka Kozole
ZAGREB, Croatia--Croatia has few top international athletes and even fewer Olympic medals. In particular, the country has had almost no success in winter sports. But all that changed dramatically with the feats of one 20-year-old woman from Croatia’s capital of Zagreb. Janica Kostelic--winner of four Olympic medals in the Salt Lake City Games and last year’s overall and slalom World Cup titles--is now taking Croatia and the sporting world by storm.
Last year’s triumph had already elevated her to the status of a national sporting hero, but Kostelic always maintained that she had considered winning an Olympic medal the ultimate challenge. It’s possible that she got that particular affinity from her father, Ante, who is a former international handball player and a coach. He turned to skiing later in life and has been coaching Janica and her brother Ivica since their childhood.
But even her father probably never expected that Janica would make her Salt Lake experience one for the record books. Kostelic won three gold and one silver medal--golds in the slalom, combined event, and giant slalom and a silver medal in super giant slalom.
Her wins are all the more surprising in light of her March 2001 skiing accident. Kostelic was seriously injured when she tore four ligaments in her right knee in a world alpine skiing championships crash. The injuries kept her off the World Cup tour until late December. To compound matters, Kostelic required emergency treatment for back pain just before going to Salt Lake City. The condition forced Kostelic to withdraw from training in Austria to undergo physical therapy. Going off to Salt Lake City, she said: “I’ll be ready for anything. If I don’t win this time, I have another chance in four years in Turin.”
But the strong-willed and rather modest woman made headlines in Salt Lake City anyway, becoming the “Croatian Sensation”--as the media often described her--making history as the first alpine skier to win four Olympic medals in a single Winter Olympic Games. "I'm happy, but records are made to be broken. Someone else will break my record soon," Kostelic said.
The four medals put Kostelic in very elite company. The only other skiers ever to win three gold medals at a single Olympics are Austria's Toni Sailer, in 1956, and France's Jean-Claude Killy, in 1968.
Kostelic’s win in the giant slalom race was particularly impressive. She was not considered a front-runner, ranking only 30th in giant slalom on the World Cup circuit. She had never finished higher than fourth in a World Cup giant slalom race.
“She proved that mentally she's the strongest--she's incredible. She can really ski with the pressure on her," Swedish skier Anja Paerson said about Kostelic.
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