Croatia's Kostelic Storms to Alpine Combined Gold 
Thu Feb 14, 5:38 PM ET 
 
SNOWBASIN, Utah (Reuters) - Janica Kostelic stormed to the top of the podium 
Thursday, winning the women's combined gold for Croatia's first ever Winter 
Olympics (news - web sites) medal. 
 
Photos 
 
Reuters Photo 
Kostelic, the 2001 overall World Cup champion who has undergone extensive 
knee surgery in the past year, dominated the slalom and then held on in the 
downhill to beat Austria's Renate Goetschl by 1.49 seconds. 
 
Germany's Martina Ertl, the silver medallist from Nagano, put team discord 
behind her to take the bronze medal 1.88 behind the winner. 
 
Kostelic, still only 20, was fastest in both slalom runs but it was an open 
question as to whether she could hold off former downhill world champion 
Goetschl in the speed event. 
 
Goetschl, bronze medallist in the individual downhill, did her best with a 
time of 1:15.27 but Kostelic then followed her down the mountain in a brisk 
1:16.00. 
 
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