Historic triumph for Janica Kostelic

Santa Caterina, Italy, Feb. 6th - 2005. Janica Kostelic celebrated an historic victory today in Santa Caterina's World downhill after beating by 26/100 of a second Italy's surprising Elena Facchini while her friend Renate Goetschl was 3rd at 39/100.

The skier from Zagreb became the first women to clinch gold medals at Olympics and World Championships in four different specialties - downhill, slalom, giant slalom and combined. She has enough time to win her last title missing - in Super-G - in the coming winters.

With a total of seven gold medals won since 2002 in Salt Lake City, St Moritz and Bormio/ Santa Caterina, she also became the most successful women in the history of modern ski racing, joining Austria's ski legend Toni Sailer at the top. Skiers as Vreni Schneider, Erika Hess, Pernilla Wiberg or Marielle Goitschel won six gold medals during their outstanding career. Schneider amassed an impressive collection of eleven medals of various metals in her best years!

Janica was amazed

Janica seemed amazed when she saw that she took the lead after crossing the finish line. “I didn't believe it was possible to beat Fanchini's time, she did a great job, and at the start I told myself I rather go home because there was no way in my mind to be faster than her,” Janica explained

“But I remained relaxed and I just gave my best. When I compete, especially at major events, I don't think too much about winning, but more about skiing at my best and have fun.”

“It has been my dream for many years to win a downhill and I guess I choose the perfect place to do it. This is a very challenging course, and I kept on improving in downhill this season. I was twice among the top-10 here then I did so well in Cortina d'Ampezzo. I felt confident after winning the combined downhill, but you never know what can happen on race day. It's wonderful to win, but any medal would have been nice if I felt happy with my run.”

“I don't know now about the coming week. To be honest, I don't care anymore, I have already won two great medals. The combined victory was nice because I had to fight hard to get it in the slalom. This is of course incredible and I'm overwhelmed with my achievement. It means so much for me.”

Janica, who started in 25th position, had a tough time at the finish line while waiting on her rivals. Some of them as Anja Paerson, 7th at the end, or Renate Goetschl, 3rd, or Ingrid Jacquemod, were faster. “I could just hope that they would do some mistakes,” she said. “I skied the final part really well. The snow was perfect and I really enjoy skiing ski fast. Downhill is a very special event to me. I got bored with slalom, I just like the speed and the thrills from the downhill.”

Toni Sailer, who won seven gold medals in 1956 (Cortina d'Ampezzo) and 1958 (Badgastein) was also impressed. “Obviously, Janica is enjoying a lot what she is doing, she has fun and that's the most important,” he said. “She has done a wonderful job not only by winning all these medals but also in fighting back hard after her injuries. She is amazing,” he added.

Great satisfaction of course also for Elena Fanchini, who never achieved any good result on the World Cup tour in recent years. The tiny Italian, who suffered a series of bad injuries in past season, including torn ligaments at a knee a year ago, had to wait last September to get back on her skis. Some promising result in downhill last month qualified her for the 2005 Worlds along her sister Nadia, 4th last week in Super-G.

“I was aiming for a great result here, a top-5, but I didn't expect this silver medal,” she said. “It's a wonderful result for our team and my fans and I wish to dedicate my great race to Marco Pantani, who died a year ago. I admired him a lot, he was a great champion. I looked at his photo this morning before going up-hill.”

“I attacked hard and everything went on fine, I achieved the race of my life I guess. I want to thank all my staff and my family who helped me so much in past months.”

Her teammate Isolde Kostner, a far 10th today, won bronze at the 1994 Olympics and silver in 2002, but Elena achieved the best Italian result at Ski World Championships since Pia Riva was 2nd in 1962 at Chamonix.

Austria's Renate Goetschl, the 1999 World Champion, won her first medal at World Championships since finishing 2nd in St Anton in 2001. She was not too disappointed by her bronze medal. “I'm the only downhill specialist who reached the podium today, so I can't complain,” she said. “I skied well in the upper part, but I made some mistake at the bottom. It's a nice comeback for me after my disappointing races in the two previous events. I was hoping for more in the Super-G after skiing so well in Cortina d'Ampezzo, but Janica and Elena skied perfectly. My goal was a medal and I got it - so everything is fine,” she also said at the press conference. Now, let me relax and have a nice beer!”

She also commented the disappointment of Lindsey Kildow who missed again a bronze medal by only a few hundredths of a second. “She is young and she will win a lot of medals in future, she should not be too upset,” she said. “It's the first time that she went at the start as a favourite, it's not so easy. I remember finishing 4th in 1996 - I was only 20 and I was really sad, Then I won the combined title in 1997 and more medals in 1999!”

Kildow missed the podium by 23/100 of a second, yet she finished ahead of other experts as France's Ingrid Jaquemod, a winner here in January, or Anja Paerson, incredibly fast in the upper past of the course before making a mistake at the bottom.

On Tuesday, the next women's race will take part in Santa Caterina, the giant slalom. Finland's Tanja Poutiainen, who rested and trained hard to successfully defend her medal chances here, is the skier to beat. But Anja Paerson, Janica Kostelic, Tina Maze, the winner here lat month, Spain's Maria-Jose Rienda-Contreras and Marlies Schild are also ready to battle for a spot on the podium.

Patrick Lang