Skiing: Kostelic siblings create history with double win
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The World Cup slalom leader, Ivica Kostelic, won a World Cup slalom less than an hour after his sister did the same in Italy yesterday, marking the first time in World Cup history that siblings have won on the same day.
The historic victory was doubly meaningful for the family, with Janica celebrating her 21st birthday. "It was a very special race and victory for me today, we got two victories for our family," Ivica said. "There are a lot of things for us to celebrate today."
Ivica, leading after the opening leg, tore down the badly-rutted Podkoren 3 course to cross in a winning aggregate time of 1min 44.71sec to collect his second straight win, having also won the knock-out slalom in Sestrieres three weeks ago.
Kostelic's illustrious sister Janica – who at Salt Lake City became the first Alpine skier to capture four medals in a single Olympics – won a women's slalom by a massive two seconds, an hour earlier in Bormio, Italy.
"I didn't watch her race because I was preparing for my race," Ivica said. "But we had a guy on the team watching the TV and telling us the times over the radio. When I heard Janica had won by two seconds I was jumping up and down in joy."
Janica, who called Ivica on his mobile phone during the post-race press conference, said it was the best birthday present she could ask for.
"I'm happy she could have the present she wished for," said Ivica, who leads the discipline standings with 218 points.
The two, who are coached by their father, Ante Kostelic, had been in a position to set another record in Salt Lake City, looking to become the first brother-sister team in 22 years to win Alpine skiing medals at the same Olympics. Janica did her part, winning the slalom, giant slalom and combined event and getting silver in the super giant slalom, but Ivica missed a gate and a chance to make history in the men's slalom.
Austria's Rainer Schoenfelder was runner-up in 1:44.98, while the Olympic slalom champion, Jean-Pierre Vidal of France, crossed third in 1:45.03. "It's my first podium this season," said Vidal, who won the slalom here last year.
"It's good. After winning the Olympics last year, there was a lot of pressure on my shoulders coming into this season. I had two fifth places earlier this season. I wanted to win but winning is not easy. So I tried to take a lot of risks today."
Britain's beleaguered slalom specialist Alain Baxter suffered another stroke of bad luck. Baxter, who was stripped of his Olympic slalom bronze medal last year after testing positive for a banned substance found in an over-the-counter cold remedy, appeared to have qualified for the second leg, crossing, 27th. However, he was later disqualified for an error on the 28th gate.
After warm temperatures nearly caused the weekend's races to be cancelled, the Slovenian resort saw itself buried under a dump of badly-needed snow yesterday.
Warm weather across Europe has wreaked havoc with the World Cup calendar, with FIS officials desperately trying to reschedule cancelled races.
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