www.olympic.org - Site Officiel du Mouvement Olympique

SLC 2002 > CHALET > JANICA > 22.02 JANICA WINS GOLD AGAIN!

22.02: JANICA WINS GOLD AGAIN!

Janica Kostelic wins another Gold medal this time in the women's giant slalom race. Listen to her interview moments after the race.

RESULTS

Friday 22nd February 2002: A fourth Olympic medal and a place in history were up for grabs at today Womens' Giant Slalom race in Park City for Janica Kostelic of Croatia. After winning two gold medals and a silver medal in the early races at the Salt Lake City Olympic Winter Games, Janica had a new kind of pressure to deal with : making it into the Olympic record books.

In near perfect conditions, the "Croatian Sensation" easily won the race by a 1.32 second margin over Anja Pearson of Sweden. Her dominance of the alpine skiing field was so impressive that she also outclassed Sonja Nef of Switzerland, who is the reigning world champion and World Cup holder of the discipline. Sonia Nef won the bronze medal with a combined 1.66 second time difference from Janica.

Janica has made Olympic history as she is the first alpine skier to win four Olympic medals in a single Winter Olympic Games. She also equals the record set by Jean-Claude Killy (FRA) and Toni Sailer (AUT) as the only alpine skier to win three gold medals in an Olympics.

After the race and with her usual relaxed attitude to victory, she commented on the new Olympic record she had just set : "It's great, but, you know, someone is going to break that record soon."

JANICA'S INTERVIEW

All those medals...did you ever dream you would get them all?
Janica Kostelic: Well I dreamed of a medal but not of all the medals in the four disciplines.

Was that second Giant Slalom run your best run ever?
J.K: Well I thought as usual I was skiing bad...so I was pushing more and more and I could not believe when I saw the margin of 1.32 (seconds)...

Are you at the summit of your career or is there more to come in Turin 2006?
J.K: I don't know... I have done enough already ...a lot of people will expect me to repeat my performance here in Salt Lake...

Now that you have won everything, are you going to take-up Snowboarding or Freestyle Skiing?
J.K: No... I can do Bobsled and help our guys here tomorrow...

Are you going to watch your brother tomorrow?
J.K: No... There will be a lot of journalists there... I am going to go skiing by myself...

What kind of Party are you going to have tonight?
J.K: No party tonight. I am going to get some sleep and rest...

PROFESSOR HEBEL'S REACTION

Professor Zdravko Hebel, President of the Croatian Olympic Committee, reacts moments before the end of the race

In this section |

VILLAGE HOME

Direct access

REAL PLAYER

The Janica's interviews are in Real Player format. The 8th version of the plug-in is necessary. You can update yours on RealNetworks' website.

OLYMPIC SOLIDARITY

Solidarité Olympique Olympic Solidarity allocates scholarships to help athletes with financial difficulties to train and ultimately qualify for the Olympic Games.