Carlo Janka

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Carlo Janka
Alpine skier
Carlo Janka.jpg
Janka in February 2009
DisciplinesDownhill, Super-G,
Giant slalom, Combined
ClubObersaxen
Born (1986-10-15) 15 October 1986 (age 34)
Obersaxen, Graubünden, Switzerland
Height1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
World Cup debut21 December 2005 (age 19)
Websitecarlo-janka.ch
Olympics
Teams3 – (2010, 2014, 2018)
Medals1 (1 gold)
World Championships
Teams7 – (20092021)
Medals2 (1 gold)
World Cup
Seasons15 – (20062017, 20192021)
Wins11 – (3 DH, 1 SG, 4 GS, 3 SC)
Podiums28
Overall titles1 – (2010)
Discipline titles1 – (SC: 2009)
hide
Medal record

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[]

  • 11 wins – (3 DH, 1 SG, 4 GS, 3 AC)
  • 28 podiums – (11 DH, 3 SG, 6 GS, 1 PG, 7 AC)
Season
Date Location Discipline Rank
2009 29 Nov 2008 Canada Lake Louise, Canada Downhill 2nd
13 Dec 2008 France Val d'Isere, France Giant slalom 1st
16 Jan 2009  Switzerland  Wengen, Switzerland Super combined 1st
22 Feb 2009 Italy Sestriere, Italy Super combined 3rd
2010 25 Oct 2009 Austria Sölden, Austria Giant slalom 3rd
28 Nov 2009 Canada Lake Louise, Canada Downhill 3rd
04 Dec 2009 United States Beaver Creek, USA Super combined 1st
05 Dec 2009 Downhill 1st
06 Dec 2009 Giant slalom 1st
18 Dec 2009 Italy Val Gardena, Italy Super-G 2nd
15 Jan 2010  Switzerland  Wengen, Switzerland Super combined 2nd
16 Jan 2010 Downhill 1st
10 Mar 2010 Germany Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany Downhill 1st
12 Mar 2010 Giant slalom 1st
2011 28 Nov 2010 Canada Lake Louise, Canada Super-G 2nd
14 Jan 2011  Switzerland  Wengen, Switzerland Super combined 2nd
15 Jan 2011 Downhill 3rd
06 Feb 2011 Austria Hinterstoder, Austria Giant slalom 3rd
05 Mar 2011 Slovenia Kranjska Gora, Slovenia Giant slalom 1st
2013 18 Jan 2013  Switzerland  Wengen, Switzerland Super combined 3rd
2015 16 Jan 2015 Super combined 1st
18 Jan 2015 Downhill 3rd
2016 23 Jan 2016 Austria Kitzbühel, Austria Downhill 3rd
7 Feb 2016 South Korea Jeongseon, South Korea Super-G 1st
2017 19 Dec 2016 Italy Alta Badia, Italy Parallel-G 2nd
15 Mar 2017 United States Aspen, USA Downhill 3rd
2020 30 Nov 2019 Canada Lake Louise, Canada Downhill 3rd
7 Mar 2020 NorwayKvitfjell, Norway Downhill 3rd

World Championships results[]

  Year    Age   Slalom   Giant 
 slalom 
Super-G Downhill Combined
2009 22 1Gold medal world centered-2.svg 9 3Bronze medal world centered-2.svg 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 Olympic rings.svg[]

  Year    Age   Slalom   Giant 
 slalom 
Super-G Downhill Combined
2010 23 1Gold medal olympic.svg 8 11 4
2014 27 13 22 6 8
2018 31 15

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. Archived from the original on 19 September 2010. Retrieved 28 September 2012.
  4. ^ "Janka has surgery for heart problem". Ski Racing.com. 1 March 2011.
  5. ^ Feehan, CJ (7 April 2014). "Carlo Janka switches to Rossignol". Ski Racing. Retrieved 16 January 2015.

External links[]

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