Carlo Janka
| Alpine skier | |||||||||||||||||||||||
 Janka in February 2009 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Disciplines | Downhill, Super-G, Giant slalom, Combined | ||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Club | Obersaxen | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 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 | 3 – (2010, 2014, 2018) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Medals | 1 (1 gold) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| World Championships | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Teams | 7 – (2009–2021) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Medals | 2 (1 gold) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| World Cup | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Seasons | 15 – (2006–2017, 2019–2021) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wins | 11 – (3 DH, 1 SG, 4 GS, 3 SC) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Podiums | 28 | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Overall titles | 1 – (2010) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
| Discipline titles | 1 – (SC: 2009) | ||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Carlo Janka (born 15 October 1986) is an 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, one discipline title and also, one unofficial alpine combined 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 Europa Cup circuit in January 2004. He earned his first two World Cup starts in December 2005, but did not finish either race. At the Junior World Championships in 2006 at 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 gained 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 to win three World Cup races in a single weekend since Hermann Maier at the same location ten years earlier. 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 2013–14 season, from Atomic to Rossignol.[5]
World Cup results[]
Season titles[]
| Season | |
| Discipline | |
| 2009 | Combined |
| 2010 | Overall |
| 2015 | Combined A |
A Unofficial, a crystal globe for AC 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 |
| 2017 | 30 | 12 | — | 20 | 19 | 7 | 30 |
| 2018 | 31 | injured | |||||
| 2019 | 32 | 58 | — | — | 41 | 19 | 29 |
| 2020 | 33 | 28 | — | — | 38 | 8 | — |
| 2021 | 34 | 58 | — | — | — | 14 | — |
- Standings through 2 March 2021
Race podiums[]
| Season | ||||
| Date | Location | Discipline | Rank | |
| 2009 | 29 Nov 2008 |  Lake Louise, Canada |
Downhill | 2nd |
| 13 Dec 2008 |  Val d'Isere, France |
Giant slalom | 1st | |
| 16 Jan 2009 |  Wengen, Switzerland |
Super combined | 1st | |
| 22 Feb 2009 |  Sestriere, Italy |
Super combined | 3rd | |
| 2010 | 25 Oct 2009 |  Sölden, Austria |
Giant slalom | 3rd |
| 28 Nov 2009 | Lake Louise, Canada |
Downhill | 3rd | |
| 04 Dec 2009 |  Beaver Creek, USA |
Super combined | 1st | |
| 05 Dec 2009 | Downhill | 1st | ||
| 06 Dec 2009 | Giant slalom | 1st | ||
| 18 Dec 2009 | Val Gardena, Italy |
Super-G | 2nd | |
| 15 Jan 2010 | Wengen, Switzerland |
Super combined | 2nd | |
| 16 Jan 2010 | Downhill | 1st | ||
| 10 Mar 2010 |  Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany |
Downhill | 1st | |
| 12 Mar 2010 | Giant slalom | 1st | ||
| 2011 | 28 Nov 2010 | Lake Louise, Canada |
Super-G | 2nd |
| 14 Jan 2011 | Wengen, Switzerland |
Super combined | 2nd | |
| 15 Jan 2011 | Downhill | 3rd | ||
| 06 Feb 2011 | Hinterstoder, Austria |
Giant slalom | 3rd | |
| 05 Mar 2011 |  Kranjska Gora, Slovenia |
Giant slalom | 1st | |
| 2013 | 18 Jan 2013 | Wengen, Switzerland |
Super combined | 3rd |
| 2015 | 16 Jan 2015 | Super combined | 1st | |
| 18 Jan 2015 | Downhill | 3rd | ||
| 2016 | 23 Jan 2016 | Kitzbühel, Austria |
Downhill | 3rd |
| 7 Feb 2016 |  Jeongseon, South Korea |
Super-G | 1st | |
| 2017 | 19 Dec 2016 | Alta Badia, Italy |
Parallel-G | 2nd |
| 15 Mar 2017 | Aspen, USA |
Downhill | 3rd | |
| 2020 | 30 Nov 2019 | Lake Louise, Canada |
Downhill | 3rd |
| 7 Mar 2020 |  Kvitfjell, Norway |
Downhill | 3rd |
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 |
| 2017 | 30 | — | — | 8 | 28 | 7 |
| 2019 | 32 | — | — | — | 35 | 18 |
| 2021 | 34 | — | — | — | 9 | — |
Olympic results 
[]
| Year | Age | Slalom | Giant slalom |
Super-G | Downhill | Combined |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 23 | — | 1 |
8 | 11 | 4 |
| 2014 | 27 | — | 13 | 22 | 6 | 8 |
| 2018 | 31 | — | — | — | — | 15 |
References[]
- ^ Skiing in Obersaxen, Switzerland Archived 6 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "France's Alexis Pinturault wins super-combi event in Switzerland". CBC Sports. Associated Press. 18 January 2013.
- ^ "Snow Kings Ski Site – Ski Racing – Skieur d'Or Award". Snowkings.co.uk. Archived from the original on 19 September 2010. Retrieved 28 September 2012.
- ^ "Janka has surgery for heart problem". Ski Racing.com. 1 March 2011.
- ^ Feehan, CJ (7 April 2014). "Carlo Janka switches to Rossignol". Ski Racing. Retrieved 16 January 2015.
External links[]
- Carlo Janka at Olympic.org (archived)
- Carlo Janka at OlympicChannel.com (archived)
- Carlo Janka at Olympics.com
- Carlo Janka at Olympedia
- Carlo Janka at FIS (alpine)
- Carlo Janka at Ski-DB.com
- Carlo Janka at Munzinger Sports Archives (in German)
- Carlo Janka at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)
- Carlo Janka at Olympics at Sports-Reference.com (archived)
- Rossignol Skis – Carlo Janka
- Swiss Ski team – official site – (in German)
- Official website – (in German)
show Olympic champions in alpine skiing – men's giant slalom |
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| show World champions in men's giant slalom |
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| show FIS Alpine Ski World Cup – Men's Overall winners |
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| show FIS Alpine Ski World Cup – Men's combined World Cup winners |
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- 1986 births
- Living people
- People from Surselva District
- Swiss male alpine skiers
- Olympic alpine skiers of Switzerland
- Alpine skiers at the 2010 Winter Olympics
- Alpine skiers at the 2014 Winter Olympics
- Alpine skiers at the 2018 Winter Olympics
- Olympic gold medalists for Switzerland
- Olympic medalists in alpine skiing
- FIS Alpine Ski World Cup champions
- Medalists at the 2010 Winter Olympics