04/25/24
November 13, 2003
Janica Kostelic a has-been at 21?: So how 'bout this: you grow up in a war zone -- literally -- living in the back seat of a car and eating pickle sandwiches while your dad/coach drives you and your brother around to compete in ski races. You bust your ass your whole young life, with Dad right behind you pushing all the time. You monumentally trash your knee at age 17 in a training run at St. Moritz, damaging the ACL, MCL, PCL and meniscus. Two and a half years later, you're at the Olympics, and you get more schwag than any two other competitors, going home with three gold medals and a silver. A year after that, you win the overall World Cup, two discipline World Cups, and two World Championships -- and, guess what, you trash your knee again while doing it. In the subsequent off-season you undergo four surgeries, and after each one the spin is that there are just a few little issues yet to deal with -- but those who felt all along that it was all just a little too amazing and bound to end soon, are thinking that maybe "soon" is "now". You miss the opening event of the season, saying that you'll be racing when it gets real in December.
And now, regardless of what shape your knee is in, you've got a medical condition and a doctor who says that any training could endanger your health. Meanwhile, you and Dad are both saying, "No big deal," and you're continuing with "light training sessions". I'm afraid that when all is said and done, the moral of this story will be, "If you can't be a good example, you'll just have to be a horrible reminder."
posted by lil_brown_bat to other at 07:34 PM - 7 comments
I made (well my wife did) some muffins tonight, know where to send them to cheer her up?
posted by billsaysthis at 11:21 PM on November 13, 2003
Where's the quoted excerpt coming from? It's not in the link. I heart the Winter Olympics.
posted by rcade at 07:26 AM on November 14, 2003
Not a huge follower of skiing outside of the Olympic year - but this girl was AMAZING at Salt Lake. Picture Michael Johnson amazing, only at the age of 20. Really too bad if that's it. And everybody gets tired after 4 hours of basketball.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 08:44 AM on November 14, 2003
uh huh, bat said schwag. Seriously, Olympic multi-discipline alpine champions are a rare breed, and it would be a huge loss to the sport if she could no longer compete. And for her to have figured out how to go fast at such an early age, makes this all the more unfortunate.
posted by garfield at 09:27 AM on November 14, 2003
rcade, not sure what quote you mean -- the "no big deal" is a paraphrase, and Janica said, "I am continuing with light training sessions," in the article cited in the link. In the world of alpine ski racing, Ante Kostelic gets a somewhat dubious approval rating from other coaches and athletes. Looking at where Janica and Ivica Kostelic are now, I'd say there is something to question. Alpine ski racing is a sport where everyone gets major injuries, but people still compete and win into their 30s -- look at Stephan Eberharter, winner of the men's overall World Cup last year -- if they do it right. Janica didn't do it right. She reinjured her knee in a training run at the Worlds, and went on to compete anyway, with the possible result of a knee that four surgeries failed to fix. I hope she listens to her doctor (and maybe not to her dad) on this thyroid thing -- but if she did, it would be a first.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 08:00 AM on November 15, 2003
Lil brown bat forgot to write some very important things in his comment!! He didn't mentioned that skiing for Janica is pure joy, it's not a job, many times after world cup races she would go to ski for herself unlike some other skiers who do something else! She is also very happy person and she prooved to anyone that when she is fit that she is clearly the best, it was just one bad day that realy hurt her when she trashed her knee in St Moritz, and all the other injuries were conected to that one! And the moral of that story will be: No metter what happens, if you trully believe in yourself, you can achieve anything you like! Nothing realy metters if you are happy!!!!
posted by knox at 12:23 PM on December 20, 2003
Jesus. And I was just bitching about how tired I was after playing four hours of basketball.