Carlo Janka

Carlo Janka
— Alpine skier —

Janka in February 2009
Disciplines Downhill, Super G,
Giant slalom, Combined
Club Obersaxen
Born (1986-10-15) 15 October 1986
Obersaxen, Graubünden,
Switzerland
Height 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
World Cup debut 21 December 2005
(age 19)
Website carlo-janka.ch
Olympics
Teams 2 – (2010, 2014)
Medals 1 (1 gold)
World Championships
Teams 3 – (2009–13)
Medals 2 (1 gold)
World Cup
Seasons 9th – (2007–15)
Wins 11 – (3 DH, 1 SG, 4 GS, 3 SC)
Podiums 24
Overall titles 1 – (2010)
Discipline titles 1 – (SC, 2009)
Medal record
Men's alpine skiing
Representing Switzerland
Olympic Games
2010 Vancouver Giant slalom
World Championships
2009 Val d'Isère Giant slalom
2009 Val d'Isère Downhill

Carlo Janka (born 15 October 1986) is a champion alpine ski racer from Switzerland. Born in Obersaxen in the canton of Graubünden, he had the winter sports facilities right in front of his home.[1] Janka has won gold medals at both the Winter Olympics and the World Championships, as well as one World Cup overall title and one discipline title.

In 2013, Janka set a World Cup speed record in the downhill part of the super combined event in Wengen, Switzerland. He reached a maximum speed of 158.77 km/h (98.66 mph) on the Haneggschuss, the fastest section of the classic Lauberhorn slope, on 18 January.[2]

Ski racing career

Janka competed in his first international FIS race in December 2001 at age 15. Not until four years later did he reach the podium, but success came in all four disciplines. Janka began racing on the FIS European Cup circuit in January 2004. He earned his first two World Cup starts in December 2005, but did not finish either race. At the 2006 Junior World Championships in Mt. Ste. Anne, Quebec, Canada, he won the bronze medal in giant slalom, and he finished the 2007 season in fourth place in the overall Europa Cup standings.

Janka scored his first World Cup points in the giant slalom at Alta Badia, Italy, on 17 December, 2006, finishing in 20th place. But his World Cup breakthrough began two years later, on 29 November 2008, when he came out of the 65th starting position to finish a surprising second place in the downhill at Lake Louise. Two weeks later, on 13 December, he skied to his first World Cup victory in a giant slalom race at Val d'Isère, France, followed the next month by a victory in the Lauberhorn super-combined in Wengen. A month later, he won the gold medal in giant slalom and the bronze in downhill at the 2009 World Championships in Val d'Isère.

On the weekend of 4–6 December, 2009, Janka achieved a remarkable feat by winning the super-combined, downhill, and giant slalom on the challenging Birds of Prey course at Beaver Creek, Colorado. Janka was the first skier to win three World Cup races in a single weekend since Hermann Maier at the same location ten years earlier on the 2000 World Cup tour. On the same weekend as Janka triumphed in Beaver Creek, Lindsey Vonn almost duplicated the feat on the women's tour at Lake Louise, winning two races and narrowly missing a third win. On 16 January 2010, Janka won the Lauberhorn downhill in Wengen, the longest and fastest race on the World Cup tour, a day after nearly repeating his 2009 win in the super-combined by narrowly placing second behind Bode Miller.

On 23 February 2010, Janka won the gold medal in the giant slalom at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics at Whistler Creekside in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada.

At the World Cup finals in Garmisch, Germany, in March 2010, he became the fourth Swiss racer to win the World Cup overall title. He clinched the title by winning the downhill and giant slalom, which left his nearest opponent, Benjamin Raich, 106 points back with one race remaining, an insurmountable margin.

In October 2010, Janka was awarded the Skieur d'Or Award[3] by members of the International Association of Ski Journalists for his performances during the previous season, thereby becoming the first Swiss male skier to receive the honour since Pirmin Zurbriggen won it back in 1990.

Following the 2011 World Championships, Janka underwent surgery due to increased symptoms from heart arrhythmias. A radio frequency catheter intervention was done on 23 February, interrupting accessory electrical pathways to the heart. These unnecessary extra pathways had caused his heart rate to behave abnormally during exercise and stress, posing possibly severe risks. Janka recovered well from the catheterization and resumed training five days later,[4] winning the giant slalom at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, on 5 March for his sole victory of the 2011 season.

Janka switched equipment following the 2014 season, from Atomic to Rossignol.[5]

World Cup results

Season titles

SeasonDiscipline
2009Combined
2010Overall
2015Combined A

A Unofficial, a crystal globe for SC was not awarded between 2013 and 2015.

Season standings

Season Age Overall Slalom Giant
Slalom 		Super G Downhill Combined
2007 20 130 — 40 — — —
2008 21 64 — 28 46 46 31
2009 22 7 — 6 16 16 1
2010 23 1 — 2 6 2 2
2011 24 3 — 5 6 9 6
2012 25 24 — 16 28 17 19
2013 26 48 — 48 27 38 4
2014 27 18 — 25 20 17 10
2015 28 10 — 12 11 17 1^
2016 29 9 — 29 5 9 7

^ Only two combined races scheduled; a crystal globe was not awarded.

Race podiums

Season Date Location Discipline Place
200929 Nov 2008 Lake Louise, Canada Canada Downhill 2nd
13 Dec 2008 Val d'Isere, France France Giant slalom 1st
16 Jan 2009 Wengen, Switzerland Switzerland Super combined 1st
22 Feb 2009 Sestriere, Italy Italy Super combined 3rd
201025 Oct 2009 Sölden, Austria Austria Giant slalom 3rd
28 Nov 2009 Lake Louise, Canada Canada Downhill 3rd
04 Dec 2009Beaver Creek, USA United States Super combined 1st
05 Dec 2009 Downhill 1st
06 Dec 2009 Giant slalom 1st
18 Dec 2009 Val Gardena, Italy Italy Super-G 2nd
15 Jan 2010 Wengen, Switzerland Switzerland Super combined 2nd
16 Jan 2010 Downhill 1st
10 Mar 2010 Garmisch, Germany Germany Downhill 1st
12 Mar 2010 Giant slalom 1st
201128 Nov 2010 Lake Louise, Canada Canada Super-G 2nd
14 Jan 2011 Wengen, Switzerland Switzerland Super combined 2nd
15 Jan 2011 Downhill 3rd
06 Feb 2011 Hinterstoder, Austria Austria Giant slalom 3rd
05 Mar 2011 Kranjska Gora, Slovenia Slovenia Giant slalom 1st
2013 18 Jan 2013 Wengen, Switzerland Switzerland Super combined 3rd
2015 16 Jan 2015 Super combined 1st
18 Jan 2015 Downhill 3rd
2016 23 Jan 2016 Kitzbühel, Austria Austria Downhill 3rd
7 Feb 2016 Jeongseon, South Korea South Korea Super-G 1st

World Championships results

  Year    Age   Slalom   Giant 
 slalom  		Super-G Downhill Combined
2009 22 — 1 9 3 DNS2
2011 24 — 7 7 — —
2013 26 — DNS2 25 19 8
2015 28 — — 12 9 6

Olympic results

  Year    Age   Slalom   Giant 
 slalom  		Super-G Downhill Combined
2010 23 — 1 8 11 4
2014 27 — 13 22 6 8

References

  1. ↑ Skiing in Obersaxen, Switzerland Archived 6 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ↑ "France's Alexis Pinturault wins super-combi event in Switzerland". CBC Sports. Associated Press. 18 January 2013.
  3. ↑ "Snow Kings Ski Site – Ski Racing – Skieur d'Or Award". Snowkings.co.uk. Retrieved 28 September 2012.
  4. ↑ "Janka has surgery for heart problem". Ski Racing.com. 1 March 2011.
  5. ↑ Feehan, CJ (April 7, 2014). "Carlo Janka switches to Rossignol". Ski Racing. Retrieved January 16, 2015.
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