Croatian makes history with giant-slalom win

Janica Kostelic is the first athlete to earn four Alpine skiing medals in the same Olympics.

By JOHN ROMANO, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published February 23, 2002

PARK CITY, Utah -- Her work is done. Soon, Janica Kostelic will return home to a little place she recently acquired. It's called Croatia.

Such are the spoils when you enter the Olympics as your country's most beloved athlete and you exit as one of the Games' most accomplished performers.

Kostelic, 20, won the women's giant slalom Friday for her third gold of the Games. Along with an earlier silver, she became the first athlete to win four Alpine skiing medals in the same Olympics.

And a country that already adored her will fall in love all over again.

"I don't know what they'll do when I get there," Kostelic said. "But I'm sure it'll be nice. And crazy."

Croatia will have a difficult time topping the reception it threw for Kostelic when she returned after winning the 2000-01 World Cup title.

The airport had to be shut down after thousands of fans showed up. The prime minister and president were on hand and brought 1,256 roses -- representing the 1,256 points she earned on the World Cup tour.

She later was named Croatia's athlete of the year, an award with which she had some familiarity. She won it at age 17, too. And 16.

Because the awards were getting monotonous, Croatia upped the ante after the World Cup title. It put Kostelic on a stamp.

That type of adulation is difficult to envision in the United States. The greatest stars here are generally in team sports. Derek Jeter is a Yankee and beloved in New York. Kostelic is a hero for an entire land.

"They expect a lot from me," she said. "It's a strange mentality. When you are first, everyone expects you to be first. Being second isn't good enough anymore."

What is remarkable is Kostelic has ascended to the top of the skiing world even though Croatia has limited resources.

There are only two ski resorts in the country, forcing Kostelic to travel throughout Europe as a child. Her gold medals are the first in the Winter Games for Croatia.

For those not counting, Kostelic's four medals are four more than the U.S. women's Alpine team has won in these Games.

"It doesn't matter where you come from," said Kostelic, who is fluent in English and German along with her native tongue. "You could be from Fiji or Cameroon. If you train hard and like what you're doing, you can be a success."

Kostelic endured her share of sacrifices along the way. Put on skis by her father, Ante, as a 3-year-old, she traveled with her parents and brother, Ivica, for competitions across Europe.

With little money for hotels and food, the family turned the trips into adventures. They slept in tents and pretended they were camping. When the weather turned cold, Janica and Ivica took turns sleeping in the car.

If the entry fees got too high, the family had pickle and salami sandwiches for dinner to save money.

"We had no money," Kostelic said. "But when you're a kid, you don't really think about it. You're just doing it."

The Kostelic children soon became major players on the skiing circuit. Janica won 22 consecutive junior races.

It was at this same slope in Park City that Kostelic reached the podium for the first time on the World Cup tour. Her third-place finish as a 16-year-old was such a shock to race officials, they didn't have a Croatian flag. Kostelic dug into her bag for the flag used for the awards ceremony.

Within two years, she was dominating the tour like few others have. Kostelic won eight of nine slalom races in 2000-01.

"She has proven that mentally, she is the strongest one of us," said Sweden's Anja Paerson, who won the silver Friday, .34 seconds ahead of Switzerland's Sonja Nef. "She's incredible. She can ski the same no matter how much pressure she has."

Although her talents are not in question, Kostelic's health was. The entire 2001-02 World Cup season has been a washout. A devastating knee injury led to three operations during the past year.

Back and shoulder injuries followed. Kostelic left the tour two months before the Olympics to train and recuperate.

Her return has been more remarkable than she could have imagined. She won silver in the super-G, gold in the combined and gold in the slalom.

Kostelic had never finished higher than fourth in a giant slalom before Friday. And in a sport in which races often are determined by a tenth of a second, she won by 1.32 seconds.

By Friday, Kostelic had run out of people in which to dedicate her races. She painted MAMA! on the fingernails of her left hand for one race, IVICA for another race and TATA! (the Croatian equivalent of dad) for the slalom.

So who did she have for the giant slalom.

"It's still my dad," she said, holding her hand up.

"I was too lazy to change it."

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