Justyna Kowalczyk
| Justyna Kowalczyk | |
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| Born |
19 January 1983 Limanowa, Poland |
| Height | 1.73 m (5 ft 8 in) |
| Ski club | AZS AWF Katowice |
| World Cup career | |
| Seasons | 2001– |
| Individual wins | 50 (all wins) 31 (World Cup) 14 (Tour de Ski) 3 (World Cup Final) 2 (Ruka Triple) |
| Indiv. podiums | 104 |
| Overall titles | 4 (2008/09, 2009/10, 2010/11, 2012/13) |
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Medal record
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| Updated on February 4, 2017. | |
Justyna Kowalczyk (born 19 January 1983) is a Polish cross country skier who has been competing since 2000. Kowalczyk is a double Olympic Champion and a double World Champion. She is also the only skier who won the Tour de Ski four times in a row and one of two female skiers, who won the FIS Cross-Country World Cup three times in a row (the other one being Finn Marjo Matikainen). Kowalczyk holds the all-time record for the most wins in Tour de Ski with 14 competitions won and 29 podiums in total. She also won the Vasaloppet women's edition in 2015.
She is a member of cross country ski department of AZS AWF Katowice and is coached by Aleksander Wierietielny.
Kowalczyk finished second in the individual sprint at the 2002 World Junior Championships. She finished 31st in the individual sprint event at the 2003 FIS Nordic World Ski Championships. Recently in Canmore, Canada, on 22 January 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 thirty 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 24 March 2009, Kowalczyk was awarded the Knight's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.
On 27 February 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 posted a time of one hour, 30 minutes, 33.7 seconds. 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.
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