ALPINE SKI WORLD CUP. Ten years after scoring his first World Cup points, Croatia`s Ivica Kostelic achieved his wildest dream clinching the men’s Overall World Cup title a week prior the Finals at Lenzerheide. The 2003 slalom World Champion became the first slalom specialist since Austria’s Benjamin Raich in 2006 to accomplish that fantastic performance after accumulating a series of impressive results in January, celebrating seven victories within a month including an amazing triumph in Super-G at Kitzbühel.

A 20th place in Saturday's downhill at Kvitfjell was enough to put the 31-year-old 518 points clear of Switzerland's Didier Cuche, a disappointing seventh in that competition. A win in a World cup race is worth 100 points and there are only five races lefts until the end of the season.

The overall World Cup is considered by many athletes to be more meaningful than an Olympic or FIS World Championship gold medal as it is decided during the whole season and over various disciplines. Ivica’s younger sister Janica clinched the big crystal globe three times during her career, including in 2006 with victories in all disciplines, establishing a record mark for women of 1970 points.

"I have been dreaming of this and fighting for this for years," said afterwards the skier from Zagreb who also leads the slalom standings and is second in Super-G. "The overall title is the greatest achievement you can reach in Alpine skiing because you have to be so consistent throughout the entire season and score big points in all disciplines,” added the three time Olympic silver medallist who also captured the combined cup this winter with victories in Wengen, Kitzbühel and Chamonix.

"I grew up in respect of the all-rounders and I have always been seeking for excellence in all events. My sister won it three times and that has been a big inspiration for me. I'm proud to have done it, being foremost a slalom skier," he also commented.

Kostelic, trained since his younger age by his father Ante, a former handball player, is a great supporter of tradition in ski racing. He was particularly proud in recent seasons to excel in prestigious ‘Classics’ as the Lauberhorn at Wengen or the Hahnenkamm at Kitzbühel.

He sacrificed his chances for a probable gold medal in combined at the recent FIS Worlds at Garmisch-Partenkirchen to take a break at home and recover part of his form for the last gate events in Bavaria. Unfortunately, he injured himself at the back of his knee in the second giant slalom run, which prevented him to be fully fit for the final slalom.

He surprisingly straddled gates in the last two slaloms at Bansko, in Bulgaria, and Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, which helps France’s new World Champion Jean Baptiste Grange to challenge him until the end next week at Lenzerheide.

Like Raich, the last Austrian Overall World Cup champion, Kostelic turned himself into a complete skier able to fight for podiums in technical and speed events. It has not been the case in 1995 when Italy’s superstar Alberto Tomba was the last pure slalom expert to clinch the overall cup without scoring a single point in Super-G, downhill or combined.

In 1997 France’s Luc Alphand, a speed specialist, won the big globe without gaining any point in the technical events or in combined. In the following years, all the overall World Cup champion managed to excel in at least three specialties and eventually also in combined. In 2005, USA’s Bode Miller captured his first overall title after having won races in all four alpine specialties.

“Nowadays you also need to score points in the speed events, you have to be a more complete skier than in the past,” the 31-year-old Kostelic explained. “I’m particularly proud of what I achieved in January, it’s pretty amazing to win so many events in a single month, I surfed on an incredible roll" also said Kostelic, who plans go on and compete at least until the Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014.

In fact, Kostelic has been fully rewarded for his impressive determination which helped him to overcome many severe knee injuries in the last 1990s and also a few years ago. Janica, who has also faced tough times at the start of the amazing career, said once that it’s impossible to fully appreciate Ivica’s achievements in the last ten years without seeing him suffering during his numerous rehabilitations.

Now Ivica can fully focus on the Finals and the concert he plans to hold on Saturday night after the slalom with some friends of him including Sweden’s Andre Myhrer, who is also a great guitar player. A passionate rock’& roll guitarist, Kostelic already enchanted several time the crowd at World Cup races, such as in 2002 when he plaid ‘Johnny be good’ in the finish area at Adelboden after finishing 2nd in slalom or at Wengen on stage at the awards ceremony organized in the middle of the small Swiss resort.

Contributed by Patrick Lang
FISalpine.com
Saturday 12 March 2011