Born: January 19, 1983, Limanowa, Poland
Early days. Graduate of the Academy of Physical Education (AWF).
Career. She is a member of cross country ski department of AZS AWF Katowice. Kowalczyk finished second in the individual sprint at the 2003 World Junior Championships. In 2006 she was third in the World Cup at Otepaa. She won the bronze medal for 30km run at the 2006 Olympic Games. In 2007, again in Otepaa she was first in the World Cup. Recently in Canmore, Canada, on Jan 22, 2008, Justyna Kowalczyk won the race for her second World Cup triumph. She followed in Canmore with two more bronze medals in the same World Cup event. Kowalczyk was 3rd in the 2007 World Cup. She has also won eighteen individual events at various distances and levels since 2001. At the 2009 world championships in Liberec, Kowalczyk won two gold medals, one in the women's pursuit (7.5 km classical + 7.5 km free technique), and another one in the 30 km mass start. She also secured a bronze medal in the 10 km classical event .She won the overall 2008–09 Cross-Country Skiing World Cup. On February 27, 2010, Kowalczyk beat Norway's Marit Bjørgen by 0.3 seconds to win the gold medal in the women's 30 km classical event in the 2010 Winter Olympics. She earned two more medals in Vancouver, taking silver behind Bjørgen in the individual sprint classic on February 17, 2010, and bronze in the 15 km pursuit on February 19, 2010. At the 2011 world championships Oslo-Holmenkollen she won silver medal in the 5000m run. On February 13, 2014 she won a gold medal for the 10 km run in The 2014 Winter Olympics. As first in the history she won over 2000 points in the World Cup.
The suspension in 2005. At the 2005 World Championships, Kowalczyk competed but was subsequently disqualified for taking dexamethasone at the Under23 OPA Intercontinental Cup competition in Oberstdorf, Germany back in 2005. Dexamethason is a substance that is allowed Out-of-Competition but prohibited In-Competition. It acts as an anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressant. Kowalczyk used the substance to alleviate an Achilles tendon condition. FIS Doping Panel issued a two-year suspension for Kowalczyk. In late June 2005 FIS determined that since dexamethasone was a glucocorticosteroid, it was classified as a specified substance on the World Anti-Doping Agency list of prohibited substances, and therefore the period of ineligibility for the first violation is at a maximum, one year's ineligibility. The FIS Doping Panel therefore reduced the suspension to one year.Kowalczyk appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) which held that Kowalczyk did not use Dexamethason to enhance her sport performance. However, she acted negligently, but the measure of the negligence did not justify a one-year term of ineligibility.
Criticism of anti-asthma drugs. Kowalczyk criticized Marit Bjørgen and other competitors during the Olympic Games in 2010 for using anti-asthma drugs. Bjørgen won five medals in the Olympics, three of them gold. The drug is allowed by FIS if prescribed by an Olympic team physician. Kowalczyk later apologized for the timing of her statements, since the Games were still going on at the time. The asthma medication Marit Bjørgen is using, Symbicort, has since been removed from WADA's list of banned substances.
Personal. She has three older siblings: her sister Ilona Batko is a physician, sister Wioletta Kowalczyk is a Polish language expert and brother Tomasz is a cardiologist.
Prizes and awards. 2009, the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta ; 2009,2010,2011,2012,2013, The Best Sportsman award in the yearly poll by Przeglad Sportowy; 2009,2010,2011,2012, Wiktor in the category The Most Popular Sportsman; Honorary citizen of the city of Katowice; 2010, The Man of the Year by Wprost.; 2012, The Woman of the Year 2011, the poll of Twoj Styl.
Source:
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article "Justyna Kowalczyk." Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.
Wikipedia
Additional information obtained from
Wikipedia (in Polish)
Return to home page:
Prominent Poles
