My sporting hero
Justyna Kowalczyk
My sporting hero is Justyna Kowalczyk, an running
on skis. She won three gold medals – first at the 2009
in Liberec, second at the 2009 in Liberec, and twice
at the 2010 in Vancouver. She is one of the most successful
cross country skiers of all time, being the only skier in the
history with victories in all the most important sport events,
so called "The Big Crown": Olympic Games, World
Championships, World Cup and Tour de Ski.
Justyna was born in 1983 in Limanowa.
She was interested in winter sports in elementary school .
Kowalczyk finished second in the individual sprint
at the 2003 World Junior Championships. She finished
31st in the individual sprint event at the 2003 FIS Nordic
World Ski Championships. 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.
Justyna 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 March 24, 2009, Kowalczyk was awarded the Knight's
Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta.
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 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.
Justyna Kowalczyk is the only cross-country skier
in history to have won all the "Big Crown": Olympic
Games (2010, Vancouver, 30 km), World
Championship (2009, Liberec, 15 km pursuit
and 30 km), World Cup (2008/2009, 2009/2010
and 2010/2011) and Tour de Ski (2009/2010,
2010/2011 and 2011/2012).
At the 2005 World Championships, Justyna competed
but was subsequently disqualified for taking
dexamethasone at the Under23 (U23) OPA
(Alpine Nations) Intercontinental Cup competition
in Oberstdorf, Germany back on January 23, 2005.
Dexamethason is a substance that is allowed Out-ofCompetition but prohibited In-Competition.
It acts as an anti-inflammatory
and immunosuppressant. Kowalczyk used the substance
to alleviate an Achilles tendon condition.
On June 13, 2005, the FIS Doping Panel issued
a two-year suspension (January 23, 2005 – January
22, 2007) 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.
Justyna 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. According to CAS, a reduced period
of ineligibility ending 8 December 2005
(the day of the hearing) provided the fair
and proportionate measure of sanction.
CAS criticised the FIS Doping Panel that their decision
excluded any consideration of Kowalczyk's defence that
she did not use the substance to enhance her sport
performance. According to CAS, Kowalczyk had
disclosed and substantiated her defence that
Dexamethason was not intended to enhance performance.
She had submitted corresponding medical certifications
to the FIS Doping Panel
as proof of use in alleviating an Achilles tendon condition.
Upon Kowalczyk's prima facie showing that her use of
the substance was for medical reasons,
the burden of proof shifted to FIS to prove the contrary.
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. Justyna later
apologized for the timing of her statements,
since the Games were still going on at the time.
Justyna Kowalczyk is my sporting hero,
because she is strong, talented,
hardworking, stubborn and intelligent woman.
Wykonala Joanna Ziemianska
z klasy 1 TI
The End