Carlo Janka (born 15 October 1986) is a Swiss former alpine ski racer. Born in Obersaxen, in the canton of Graubünden, he had the winter sports facilities right in front of his home.Skiing in Obersaxen, Switzerland 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 on the Haneggschuss, the fastest section of the classic Lauberhorn slope, on 18 January.

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, 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 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 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 honor since Pirmin Zurbriggen won it back in 1990.

Following the 2011 World Championships, Janka had some health problems but recovered well and resumed training five days later, 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.

World Cup results

Season titles SeasonDiscipline2009Combined2010Overall2015Combined Unofficial, a crystal globe for AC was not awarded between 2013 and 2015.

Season standings SeasonAgeOverallSlalomGiantSlalomSuper GDownhillCombined 2007 20 130 — 40 — — — 2008 21 64 — 28 46 46 31 2009 22 7 — 6 16 16 1 2010 231 — 2 6 2 2 2011 243 — 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 31injured 2019 32 58 — — 41 19 29 2020 33 28 — — 38 8 — 2021 34 61 — — — 13 — 2022 35 116 — — — 40 —

Race podiums 11 wins – (3 DH, 1 SG, 4 GS, 3 AC) 28 podiums – (11 DH, 3 SG, 6 GS, 1 PG, 7 AC) SeasonDateLocationDisciplineRank200929 Nov 2008 Lake Louise, Canada Downhill 2nd13 Dec 2008 Val d'Isere, France Giant slalom 1st16 Jan 2009    Wengen, Switzerland Super combined 1st22 Feb 2009 Sestriere, Italy Super combined 3rd201025 Oct 2009 Sölden, Austria Giant slalom 3rd28 Nov 2009 Lake Louise, Canada Downhill 3rd4 Dec 2009 Beaver Creek, USA Super combined 1st5 Dec 2009 Downhill 1st6 Dec 2009 Giant slalom 1st18 Dec 2009 Val Gardena, Italy Super-G 2nd15 Jan 2010    Wengen, Switzerland Super combined 2nd16 Jan 2010 Downhill 1st10 Mar 2010 Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany Downhill 1st12 Mar 2010 Giant slalom 1st201128 Nov 2010 Lake Louise, Canada Super-G 2nd14 Jan 2011    Wengen, Switzerland Super combined 2nd15 Jan 2011 Downhill 3rd6 Feb 2011 Hinterstoder, Austria Giant slalom 3rd5 Mar 2011 Kranjska Gora, Slovenia Giant slalom 1st 2013 18 Jan 2013    Wengen, Switzerland Super combined 3rd2015 16 Jan 2015 Super combined 1st18 Jan 2015 Downhill 3rd2016 23 Jan 2016 Kitzbühel, Austria Downhill 3rd7 Feb 2016 Jeongseon, South Korea Super-G 1st2017 19 Dec 2016 Alta Badia, Italy Parallel-G 2nd15 Mar 2017 Aspen, USA Downhill 3rd2020 30 Nov 2019 Lake Louise, Canada Downhill 3rd7 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

External links

Rossignol Skis – Carlo Janka Swiss Ski team – official site – –