Kristiana Cavar
Mrs. Raposo
February 27th2013
Janica Kostelic is a Croatian alpine skier. She is the most successful female skier ever, with four gold Olympic medals and two silver Olympic medals. She has won the gold in five world championships of skiing.
Janica Kostelic was born in Zagreb, Croatia in the year 1982. She was born on the fifth of January. Janica Kostelic's father Ante Kostelic is a skier himself and acts as her trainer. As money is scarce and hard to earn in Croatia, Janica, and her family had troubles throughout the process. They were not equipped with proper gear to begin with, which posed a struggle for the family to earn money, as the equipment is quite expensive. There were many obstacles the family had to face. In Croatia, the weather is often warm, and back then, they didn’t have the technology we have today such as snow machines to cover their many hills. Therefore, Janica had to travel, alongside her father, mother and brother to live out her dreams. Her brother Ivica is also a well-known skier. Janica Kostelic and her brother Ivica started skiing when they were about ten years old, and their father took them around Europe to compete in races. When she started racing in the Junior Tour, she won every race she competed in. Believe it or not, Janica was in twenty-two races!
She has won the overall World Cup for skiing three times in her life. The first time that she won a medal in a World Cup race, she had to use a Croatian flag that her father had with him because the race officials didn't have a Croatian flag on hand! She won her first overall World Cup title in 2001 when she was barely nineteen years old. Her surprising win put Croatia on the map for Olympic Winter Sports, and Janica Kostelic's image was put on a Croatian postage stamp - the first time that had been done for a sports celebrity. Janica Kostelic's following victories were in 2003 and 2006, with a very closely contended battle with Anja