Carlo Janka biography
Carlo Janka, (born October 15, 1986, Obersaxen, Switzerland), Swiss Alpine skier whose clear, environment friendly type and poised willpower helped set up him as one of many sport’s prime all-around opponents within the early twenty first century.
Janka was born in a mountain village in southeastern Switzerland and commenced snowboarding at age two. As an adolescent he additionally performed soccer (soccer), however Austrian skier Hermann Maier’s multiple-medal-winning efficiency on the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, impressed him to focus completely on snowboarding. In December 2005, 4 years after his first Fédération Internationale de Ski (FIS; International Ski Federation) race, Janka competed in his first World Cup occasion, and several other months later he gained a bronze medal within the big slalom on the FIS junior world championships.
Though Janka registered two top-10 finishes in World Cup occasions in early 2008, his actual breakthrough got here in November of that yr, when he positioned second within the downhill race at Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada, regardless of having been one of many final skiers on the course. The following month he gained his first World Cup race with a victory within the big slalom at Val-d’Isere, France. At the 2009 world championships in February, Janka scored two medals—a gold within the big slalom and a bronze within the downhill—and later that month he clinched the World Cup title within the tremendous mixed.
Despite having suffered from a virus in the summertime that severely restricted his low season coaching, Janka returned to the World Cup circuit in late 2009 on the peak of his abilities. In December, at Beaver Creek, Colorado, U.S., he scored victories within the tremendous mixed, downhill, and big slalom, turning into the primary man to win races in three completely different disciplines on consecutive days since legendary French skier Jean-Claude Killy did so in 1967. Janka’s continued domination positioned him as a powerful favorite on the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver. Though doubts mounted as he failed to complete larger than fourth in any of his first three races there, he lastly met expectations with a gold medal within the big slalom. He capped off the 2009–10 World Cup season, and additional demonstrated his versatility, by securing the general title. He gained one other World Cup race—a large slalom—throughout the 2010–11 season, however the high quality of his snowboarding grew worse within the lead-up to the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia, the place his finest end in 4 occasions was sixth place within the downhill. Four years later he appeared in only one occasion on the 2018 Winter Games in P’yŏngch’ang, South Korea, a Fifteenth-place end within the Alpine mixed race.
Many observers attributed Janka’s success on the slopes to his streamlined type, which eschewed flashy strikes in favour of exactly managed movement and stability. He was additionally admired for his cool manner, a high quality that led his Swiss teammates to accord him the nickname “the Iceman.”