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Janica Kostelić is a former World Cup alpine ski racer and four-time Olympic gold medalist from Croatia. In addition to the Olympics, she won five gold medals at the World Championships. In World Cup competition, she won thirty individual races, three overall titles, three slalom titles, and four combined titles.
Kostelić is the only woman to win four gold medals in alpine skiing at the Winter Olympics, and the only woman to win three alpine skiing gold medals in one Olympics.
Kostelić was the World Cup overall champion in 2001, 2003, and 2006. On 15 January, 2006, Kostelić became only the third woman in World Cup history to win World Cup races in all of the sport's five disciplines. On 5 February 2006 Kostelić became the second female skier to win all five disciplines in one season.
In the summer of 2006, she decided to not compete in the 2007 season, due to chronic knee and back pain. She had endured ten knee surgeries and thyroid surgery during her career. Following a year away from competition, Kostelić announced her retirement from racing in April 2007.
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