Janica Kostelic Retired

Croatian skier Janica Kostelic announced her retirement from skiing on Thursday, April 17^th, 2008, to put an end to her continuous string of injuries. Although Kostelic has been considered one of the greatest and strongest female alpine skiers, she had to undergo ten knee injuries and three knee surgeries over the course of her career! In a recent news conference, Kostelic announced, “The moment has come to end my career, although I still want to ski. The main reason for this decision are injuries. I have suffered so many injuries and pain and don’t want to go through this again.”

Kostelic has been coached by her father, Ante, and started skiing and the young age of three. So it’s no surprise how good she is! The International Olympic Committee gave Kostelic a scholarship to help her with her training when she was just 13 years of age. Despite many thinking she needed a top-of-the-line coach, her father worked out perfectly for her. At the age of 16, she qualified for her country’s team in the 1998 Nagano Olympics and her best finish was 8^th place in the combined.

Kostelic was raised as a typical teenager in Croatia, watching Die Hard and becoming a part of the Bruce Willis fan club. Now at the age of 25, she holds the status of quadruple Olympic champion and has won nine gold medals from world championships and Olympic games since 2002. Kostelic has also collected three overall World Cup titles and achieved a record points total after winning nine world cup events across all five disciplines.

After a dysfunctional thyroid, knee surgeries and various other persistent injuries, Janica Kostelic now says she wants to focus on her newly-opened beauty parlor, and lead a normal life, keeping her private life away from the media and limelight for a while.