Athlete Bios
Alpine Skiing
Switzerland's Janka strives for multiple podiums
Last Updated: Friday, February 5, 2010 | 11:22 AM ET
New York Times for CBC Sports
Swiss Carlo Janka Janka won the giant slalom gold medal and a downhill bronze medal at the 2009 world championships. (Hrvoje Polan/Getty Images)In the summer of 2009, the Swiss alpine ski racer Carlo Janka was ill with a mysterious virus that left him constantly weary.
"Like I always had a low battery," Janka, 23, said.
Later that year, after Janka won three consecutive races at Beaver Creek, Colo., his Swiss teammate Didier Cuche said, "I want to have the same virus that Carlo had."
Janka is a rising alpine star who, in the last year, has won two world championship medals, four World Cup races and has made himself a contender in at least three events at the upcoming Vancouver Olympics.
Lean and baby-faced, at six-foot-one, 174 pounds, Janka is called the "quiet assassin" by some European ski writers. His teammates refer to him as Ice Man.
His style is not flashy and he seldom appears to be skiing fast. Some have referred to his skiing as boring. But he is coolly efficient and precise with few moving parts in his technique.
So although Janka may not appear to be moving fast, his finish times tell a different story.
His victories on consecutive days at Beaver Creek made him the first racer to win three races at the event since Hermann Maier did it in 1999.
Janka also won the giant slalom gold medal and a downhill bronze medal at the 2009 world championships.
On a jovial and experienced Swiss men's team, Janka is also called "the kid," but his competitors take him seriously.
As the former overall world champ Benni Raich of Austria said after the Beaver Creek races, "How can you not notice somebody who wins every day?"
His victory streak ended late last year, but Janka did get a second place in a January 2010 super-G.
Janka's success has not surprised members of the Swiss team, although they thought there would be a longer period of adjustment since his illness cost him so much off-season training.
From May to the end of August, the world's best skiers diligently trained on slopes from South America to New Zealand; Janka was at home in bed.
"They never did figure out what was wrong with me," Janka said. "It just went away."
Raised in Obersaxen, Janka began skiing at age two - with Maier as one of his idols. He made steady progress throughout his teenage years. His coaches liked that he never seemed nervous before races. And yet, Janka was still racing on the less professional circuits as recently as 2007.
His breakout came in December 2008, when he won his first World Cup race. He has hardly looked back since.
Janka was always a versatile skier and now races in five events: downhill, super-G, super-combined, slalom and giant slalom.
facebook_url: http://www.facebook.com/people/Carlo-Janka/1075962184
