Janica Kostelic reached her main goal

Cortina d'Ampezzo, Jan.15th - Seven years after competing in her first World Cup races in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Janica Kostelic achieved one of her greatest dreams in reaching the podium in a downhill - in Saturday's race, she only missed her first win by 29/100 of a second after skiing almost perfectly in the final part.
She is now one of the few skiers having finished in the top-3 in all events.
This superb performance also helped her to take over the lead in the Overall World Cup standings for the first time since the 2003 Finals in Lillehammer! Just a wonderful day for the skier from Zagreb who will now try to keep her position going into her first World Cup race in Zagreb!

“I was second in training the other day, so I can't really say that my podium today in downhill is a surprise but it's definitely a great result,” she said after the race. “I aimed to ski as well as in training, I mostly tried to do exactly the same today. But even if I was expecting such a result here on in the coming downhill races, it doesn't change anything about the way I feel having with reach a podium in downhill!”
“It's a big thing for me. I'm really happy. Being on the podium in that event was a big dream for me since I was a kid, and I've always been really positive about my possibility to achieve this goal.”

A great day for Janica

“For sure, it's a great day, but I never go over my emotions! Beside this, there is another race tomorrow so I already have to forget today's race and start to concentrate on tomorrow's competition. Now, I'll go back to my hotel, eat, rest and maybe train a little. It doesn't change my plan.”
“Of course, we can already think about a win in downhill. But for this, I'll have to change the slope because here it can't be possible at all to beat Renate Goetschl. I believe she is unbeatable in Cortina! There is no way that you can get her here this year!”

“I also like to race here, I skied pretty good in SG yesterday. I really enjoy to glide on this slope. I didn't made so many mistakes as I did in the training. My job was not that huge at the end! I just needed to make a clean run and let me glide. I'm also happy, because my knee is getting much better. It's still hurting but not as the other day after the slalom. Fortunately, I took a day of rest and this helped a lot.”

Back in the lead

“I'm back in the Overall World Cup lead, but I'm not into it. There are a lot of other races which are still coming-up. How do you want to seriously think about it while you know that we still have two months in front of us - so many things can happen! Obviously, it's great to be around. Who would be complaining about this? Yet I'm just thinking from race to race. Not in a global way so far. It's not in the program. Tomorrow I'll race my downhill, and skiing my best exactly the same as I did today.”

“It's true that it's pretty tiring to be racing four events as I'm doing right now, but last week in Santa Caterina was much more demanding than this week. In downhill you can be easy on the course, while on the slalom course, you have to work all the time on the slope down to the finish.”

“To be on the podium in downhill right before the World Championships is obviously quite a nice way of preparing the next game! It doesn't mean anything, but I know that I'm there in this discipline too. Actually, I was only pointing on the combined, as my SG and my GS are not so great for the moment. Maybe, my best events are changing!”

Manuèle LANG