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Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Ivica Kostelic early World Cup years (1998–2005)

Ivica Kostelić Croatian pronunciation: born November 23, 1979 is an alpine ski racer from Zagreb, 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 the elder brother of Janica Kostelić, the winner of three overall World Cup titles and four Olympic gold medals before her early retirement due to injuries.
Contents
* 1 Career
o 1.1 Early World Cup years (1998–2005)
o 1.2 Resurgence as all-event skier (2006–2010)
o 1.3 Overall World Cup title (2011)
* 2 Personal life
o 2.1 Controversy
* 3 World Cup victories
o 3.1 Season titles
o 3.2 Race victories
* 4 References
* 5 External links
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 during his career and the overall World Cup title in 2011. He won the slalom World Cup title in 2002 and 2011, and the combined World Cup title in 2011. Since 2008, he has finished among the top six in the overall World Cup standings each season (2008: sixth; 2009: fourth; 2010: fifth; 2011: first). He has also scored points in all disciplines each of those seasons, and his best race results (as of March 2011) are a seventh place in downhill, a second place in giant slalom, and victories in all other disciplines (11 in slalom, 1 in parallel-slalom, 2 in combined, 3 in super combined, and 1 in Super G).
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 starting from the 64th bib number, 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.